


Those Scars No One Can See

by BlackWidette



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Abduction, Aftermath of Torture, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan, F/F, Healing, Idiots in Love, Imprisonment, Mistakes, Past Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Penance - Freeform, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Rape, Rape Aftermath, Rape Recovery, Rape/Non-con Elements, Recovery, Swan Queen - Freeform, The Savior (Once Upon a Time), Torture, True Love, Young Evil Queen | Regina Mills, love heals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2019-09-18 04:12:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 9
Words: 61,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16987827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackWidette/pseuds/BlackWidette
Summary: Regina and Emma are abducted into another plane of existence where they both suffer extreme trauma.Snow, Charming, Ruby, Henry and Killian desperately try to figure out how to get the women back home.But even if the women are able to return to Storybrooke, with what they are about to experience and face...  How would they even begin to move on from that?This is a trauma and healing fic set around sometime when the show was good.Hook n Emma are not and have never been romantic, they're solid friends though, each other's beards.Snow is not pathetic, she's the badass outlawed princess we all know she can be, she still worries though. The most courageous of us do.Ruby is going to be a regular, cos Ruby.Regina and Emma aren't established but this is a Swanqueen story and the goal and feels are there and eventually our girls will get there too.





	1. Abduction

**Author's Note:**

> This story is predominantly about trauma. A lot of fucked up stuff is going to happen and be written about, in some instances very graphically. So if that's not for you, I honour that, and believe you should listen to your gut with whether you read this or not.
> 
> I'm in it for the psychology. For the PTSD, the experience in all the painful detail, the anger, the sadness, the loss, the facing the past, the acknowledgement that hurt people hurt people and most of all for the healing.
> 
> I think a lot of people identified with Regina for the pain they've recieved in their lives. We have a choice when bad things happen to us, whether unjustly or justly, we either turn it into anger, hatred, a corrosive disease that eats us inside and keeps us stuck in that pain or... we choose acceptance, positivity, love and we heal.
> 
> It's so much easier to turn to hate and healing requires guidance and support. My therapist always quotes to me that PTSD is the result of a lack of compassion when someone receives trauma.  
> I was going through some fucked up things when Once Upon a Time came out, and I was a very angry person. Ask me what the world was and I'd have said it was full of people who just want to take from you and hurt you.  
> I loved Regina for a strength I felt I needed. Over the years I healed and now my heart breaks for her that she too didn't recieve the compassion she needed at many traumatic points in her life.
> 
> I am always reading the heavy, dark, angsty fics, because most of the time they are written by people who have been through some shit and there is generally a vibe of love and healing as an outcome for those stories and traumas.
> 
> I am now in love with life and my nervous system is my best friend. I have learnt how to monitor my triggers and she's my number one priority in all situations. My heart is full of love and my life is full of beauty.
> 
> This is what I want to give with this fic. I want to give Regina compassion. I want to hold space for her pain and her story.  
> I think a lot of her trauma and subsequent reaction to life was brushed aside in the show and I want to face and honour those experiences. I want her to cry and let it out and heal.
> 
> And Emma does too.
> 
>  
> 
> Please let me know what you think hey.

As Emma approached the mayor's office she heard a muffled cry and crash of glass from inside and immediately sprung into Sheriff mode. Dropping the Granny's Diner bag holding lunch for her and Regina on the floor, unsheathing her gun from it's holster and scanning the hallway before she crept towards the door, standing just to the side of it with adrenaline spiking through her tensed body.

"What are you doing?! Get your hands off of me!" Regina's voice cracked with fear and Emma's heart lept into her throat, the only time she'd ever heard Regina sound that frightened was the day their son lay unconscious in a hospital bed.  
Emma's hair stood on end all over her body as she took a step away from the wall and kicked the door in, entering the room with her gun raised.

Regina was standing against her desk, the remnants of a lamp scattered over the marble floor to the left, her hands raised in front of her, pushing on the chest of a figure in a dark brown cloak looming over her. A familiar looking cuff was wrapped around her wrist, similar to one Emma had seen used many a time for restraining magical abilities. The brunette's eyes were wide with terror and ghosted over as she was seeing something inside her own head. When her eyes cleared, her body sagged against the table, her breathing ragged like she'd run a race and her body trembled. She immediately flicked her eyes from the face inside the hood towards the doorway where Emma stood, weapon in hand.

"Get away from her!" Emma snarled as she cocked the hammer on her pistol.

Regina's eyes flashed from terror to panic as she shook her head the smallest of fractions and whispered frantically.

"Run Emma!"

Emma's brows furrowed in worry and confusion as she met Regina's nightmared eyes.

The figure, stiffened and straightened up, turning its head slowly and deliberately towards the door.  
From beneath the hood a chalk white face sneered at her with black pointed teeth set in charcoal gums to match its fully black eyes.

Although she immediately assumed it was male by its height and bald head beneathe its hood, Emma couldn't be sure it had a gender, its face so androgynous in its coldly striking way.

As the being had turned to Emma, she had become overwhelmed with a sense of utter dread. The feeling wasn't from what she saw, as eerie as its features were, no, the feeling of hopelessness came simply from its presence, its being, as it directed towards her.  
She felt a chill run up her spine as a deep rattle was released from its mouth.

"I am taking this one. She is miiine."

Emma felt her body run cold with fear for Regina, but she held her ground and the thing's ghastly gaze.

"Her name is Regina and she belongs to no one." Emma said strongly and with authority. "Let her go, leave now, and you have my word as Sheriff that you will not be followed. Do not make the mistake of messing with the people of this town."

A high pitched shreik emitted from the being as the corners of its mouth turned up, baring its teeth again and Emma, having flinched initially at the sound, realised it was laughing.

It smiled at her, lifted a hand purposefully and then curled it closed as ghostly black chains materialised and began wrapping themselves around Regina behind its back.

Every movement it made was so slow and deliberate as it turned its back on Emma. It frightened her how unaffected by the gun and her warning it was, how unmoved by haste it was, as if she were a fly that wasn't worthy enough of even being annoying.

As the chains closed tightly around Regina's struggling body, one snaked its way through her hair and around her face to pull tightly against her mouth, forcing the brunette's jaw open to gag her, making Regina whimper.

"Stop it! Let her go! I swear to you..." Emma yelled just as the chains hummed and emmited a glow, lifting Regina off of the ground to float mid-air. Regina's eyes went wide and her hands frantically tried to conjure a fireball repeatedly, regardless of the magic-inhibiting cuff that was tight on her wrist.

The dark glow thrumming off of the chains crept over Regina's body, turning her a swirling translucent ash colour, clothes and all, and as the ghostly affect slid up her face, she stared at Emma with a look of such despair and resignation that it froze the blonde in place. As the shadow crept closed over Regina's crown, she stiffened briefly, her face contorting in pain before her body fell away to the floor leaving her smoky essence wrapped in chains in the air looking down at her own unconscious carcass on the ground in perplexed horror.

"REGINA!" Emma screamed in panic and fired three shots into the creature's back.

Its head snapped towards her so fast and with it a series of images overwhelmed Emma in one short moment. Every awful thing that had happened to her in her life forced their way into her mind in that one second. Every ounce of pain, every slice of anguish, every drop of despair was thrown to the forefront. She thought she was dying, it was so much all at once and then as quickly as the experiences were there, they were gone again, back to the depths of her memories where she kept them locked and out of sight.

Emma staggered as she was released from the onslaught, and dropped to one knee, blinking furiously and chest heaving for breath, her body alert and trembling.

Whatever this thing was it was on a level Emma had never even dreamed of. It was eternal and everywhere. It was pain. It was suffering... And it had Regina.

Utter panic slammed into Emma as she thought of this thing and what it would do with Regina. What she'd just felt... Her own memories from her past... How had it done that, how had it known they were there to bring forward? All thought for her personal safety left her as she looked at Regina's body on the floor, to Regina's floating essence wrapped in chains blinking in shock at her body below, to the cloaked creature facing Regina, slowly lifting it's arms to her.

Emma did the only thing left to her as an option; she threw her gun to the ground and lunged at the robed creature.

As her arms wrapped around its scratchy brown cloak, an intense smell of rotting corpse flooded her nostrils simultaneously with searing pain burning all through her body. Emma felt an overwhelming tearing sensation run through her, before watching her body fall to the floor next to Regina's.  
She looked up in shock to Regina's face, to find tears falling on her cloudy transparent cheeks.

A darkness slid into the room from every shadow, filling the light areas with aphotic black until Emma knew nothing... 

She was nothing... 

There was... nothing.

 

\--------------

 

"No Snow, I haven't forgotten what it was like losing our daughter 'all those other times'. But I'm sure she simply forgot she had to pick up Henry from school. She's probably just off drinking with that pirate bestie of hers or making eyes at the mayor on some town service errand with her phone on silent."

David rolled his eyes and chuckled lovingly at his ever cautious wife as he climbed the stairs towards the mayor's hallway.

"You know exactly what I mean. You can't deny there aren't sparks ev-..."

David stopped abruptly at the top of the stairs as he spotted the wooden splinters from the door frame and the spilled diner bag on the floor down the hall.

"I'll call you back Snow." He said purposefully sobering, ending the call and drawing his gun. Creeping towards the door, he called out.

"Emma? Regina?"

Listening for movement or response, and when there were neither, he peeked around the door frame. Seeing Emma and Regina crumpled on the marble floor and three bullet casings near the door, his heart started hammering in his chest. Scanning the room and determining it was clear, he rushed in holstering his gun and dropping to the floor next to Emma, immediately checking her pulse while looking over her body in a glance to see no physical harm.

"Emma, baby?" Escaped his lips as he searched for a heartbeat.

A faint thrumming was felt beneath his fingertips and a wave of relief washed through him, followed by a cold sweat as he reached into his pocket for his phone and scrambled to check Regina's delicate pulse.

"Snow, get here now. The mayors office. Yes. She's alive. Regina too. But they're... They're unconscious. I don't know. Okay"

David hung up and dialled Ruby.

"Red. We need your help. Emma and Regina. Yeah. No they're not. I think so. Maybe magic. Regina's office. Thank you."

Again he finished the call and started a new one.

"Hook. When you were with Emma this morning did she say anything was up? Give any mention of a threat?"

Still kneeling between the women as he was talking, David noticed a light mark on Regina's forehead that he'd never noticed on her before. A single line about an inch long starting directly in the centre of her brow running upwards. It looked so faint it could have been a soft scar from childhood. He looked across to his daughter and saw the same mark. Taking in a hiss of breathe, he turned his head to look around the room before realising Hook was talking.

"What? No. Did she seem worried or preoccupied? No she's not. I don't know. Okay. Town Hall. The Mayor's office. Fine."

David looked down at his daughter as he lowered his phone from his ear. Her face so peaceful in its stillness.

He sighed. He just keeps losing his girl, time and time again in some ironic loop of love lost and refound. He placed his hand on Emma's cheek briefly in a moment of mournful acceptance before standing to look around the room again in detective mode.

The remnants of a porcelain white lamp on the floor to the left of the desk and Emma's gun underneath the large table to the right. He stooped to pick up the gun and smelling the discharge immediately, checked the clip to confirm three cartridges missing.  
He walked into the hall and examined the lunch bag and door splinters. A large salad and Granny's giant grilled cheese both uneaten coupled with the splinters mostly inside the office confirmed for him that Emma was visiting and had kicked the door in.  
He went over to stand next to the shell casings before walking over behind the desk to examine the wall for bullets. Finding none, he went back to the women on the floor and examined them more closely. No bullet wounds. He sat back on his heals, his brow forrowed when he noticed the cuff on Regina's wrist. Taking a quick breath in, he lifted her arm gently to inspect the cuff. It would have been unassuming had he not encountered the use of magic-arresting jewellery in the past.

He was failing to remove it from her wrist when he heard footsteps in the hall.  
Drawing up Emma's gun that was in his lap, he spun towards the door just as Ruby's voice exclaimed from the hallway followed by her entrance with her hand over mouth and nose and her eyes squinting in disgust.

"Ugh, the fuck is that?!"

She froze as she saw the scene in front of her and held her hands up by her head, taking a step backwards until David lowered the weapon and let out a breath.

"Sorry Rubes, I wasn't sure."

Ruby nodded her head, recovering, while she stared at Regina and Emma on the floor.

David noticed her face still held discomfort and there were tears in her eyes, getting up and approaching her he asked gently.

"Hey are you okay?"

"Yeh. No. I just feel... Ugh. Fuck, what is that smell!?" Ruby said, her eyes watering.

David looked around and back at her quizzically, before noticing the faint smell of something like garbage.

"Huh, I hadn't noticed it. I can hardly smell it."

"It's like... It's like death. Like three month rotting death..." Ruby held her stomach and bent slightly, gagging a little before looking up at David's surprised face apologetically.

"Wolf senses." She explained. "It's... just so powerful. That's gotta be the worst smell I've ever smelt!"

She swallowed and looked over at Emma and Regina, giving them her full attention, cursing under her breath.

"Something went on in here. Can you feel that?" She said slowly, looking at David curiously. 

"Feel what?"

Ruby took off the red handkerchief that was tied around her neck and pressed it over her noise, her body relaxing visibly at the relief the small scrap of fabric brought her. She started muffling through the fabric but paused as two more sets of footsteps echoed from the hall. David raised Emma's pistol again and Ruby stepped aside.

Snow rushed into the room with Hook behind her.

"Bloody hell..." Hook let out upon seeing the unconscious women.

David lowered his weapon and pulled his wife into a hug as she stared past him at her daughter and friend on the floor.

Snow pulled out of his arms and dropped to the floor next to the women, cupping Emma's cheek much like her husband had done earlier before sitting up straighter and looking between David and Ruby, asking;

"What happened?"

Hook who was crouched by the door examining the lunch bag spoke up.

"I don't think our love Emma was the target. She was on her way to visit Regina for a morsel and kicked the bloody door inwards."

"That's what I think too. There's a cuff on Regina's wrist but none on Emma's and Emma fired three shots from the door, but there are no bullets anywhere in the room, which makes me automatically think she hit her target, but there is not a single drop of blood..."

David turned to Ruby to ask about blood but remembered she had been trying to tell him something.

"Rubes tell us what you were sensing."

She lifted the material from her face slightly before answering.

"Other than the unholy smell of rancid flesh?" She quipped before becoming serious. "It's like... A weight. Or, a heaviness. Like a sense of oppression and loss. I don't understand it, my instincts are telling me that it's a presence, that there was something else here, but how can a person be a feeling? Or how can a creature leave behind an emotion?"

"I don't know Rubes, I can't feel anything like that and the smell is faint for me. But I trust your senses. Can you smell anything else beside the garbage? Can you smell blood?" David asked.

"Dude it's on a whole different level to garbage. Let me clear my lungs and try again." She disappeared out into the hall past Hook to take deep breaths of clean air.

Meanwhile Snow was examining Regina's cuff when David walked over.

"There is also this." He said motioning to Emma and Regina's foreheads.

Hook knelt down next to Emma and brushed her forehead with his thumb, lost in thought.

"I've seen this..."

Snow's head snapped up. "You have?"

"Yes love, I just... can't remember where." He said slowly. "It's like an odd tug at the back of my memory, like a dream from the night before that is all but lost..."

Ruby walked back into the room, ending Hook's musing as she shuddered.

"The feeling of darkness isn't out there in the hall. It's only in this room. I can smell that putrid grossness from out there though."

She walked closer to the centre of the room breathing shallowly through her nose, her eyes watering, fighting the fetor.

"I can't smell any blood. Outside of you three, the gun discharge, and the food in the hall, there is nothing but that foul smell." She said apologetically. "Wait... Hang on."

She dropped her head lower in the direction of the unconscious women, confusion in her eyes. She moved over to them, the closer she got the more her eyes watered.

"Oh God, it's stronger around them. But there's something odd..."

She knelt down between Emma and Regina, covering her nose again with her neck tie and taking a breath through it before bringing it away, gently sniffing the air and covering her face again.

"They're not all here."

The three who had been observing silently as Ruby did her 'wolf thing', looked at each other questioningly until Snow asked.

"Who isn't? What do you mean?"

"They're missing, Emma and Regina. I don't know how to describe it. They're not here. Not completely. Part of them is missing. Their scent's aren't full." Ruby's eyebrows furrowed. "It smells like them, but not completely. They aren't all here, I can't explain it any other way... I've never smelt half a person before..."

She leaned down closer to Emma and removed the cloth from her face, taking a sniff. Immediately Ruby retched and turned her head away, holding her stomach.

"Oh god!" She muffled, retching again and scrambling away from Emma, coughing.

The three others looked alarmed and Snow went over to comfort and rub circles on Ruby's back as she gagged.

"Jesus, shit. It was all over Emma. That rank smell. It was so strong. It's like she hugged it or something. Fuck. I'm sorry guys, I need to get some air."

Ruby got up and briskly left the room, her coughing and cursing could be heard disappearing down the hall.

Snow, who had watched Ruby go, turned back to David and Hook, looking at the women on the floor and spoke in resignation.

"We need to talk to Gold and we need to tell Henry."

David nodded solemnly and looked to Hook.

"We should move them to the loft."

Hook nodded, looking down at the women, down at his own physique and back up to David.

"You can carry the muscley one mate."

 

\--------------


	2. Hrïş°mhiëř

Regina flinched awake as her conciousness returned and the immediate memories from the events in her office flooded her mind. Anxiety tight in her throat and chest, she pushed herself into a sitting position. Her head spinninv and her body aching, it took her a while for her eyes to focus and her skin to feel the hardness of the floor and the chill of the room, raising goosebumps along her bare arms. Her long sleeved silk blouse, pencil skirt, stockings and heels were doing nothing to ward off the cold.

As Regina's mental faculties adjusted to being awake, she took in the large doorless concrete room lit by two buzzing fluorescent lights and her eyes snapped to the body laying five metres away, facing the corner.

"Emma!"

Scrambling over to the blonde, she rolled the woman towards her to study her face for signs of injury.

"Oh you idiotic girl, what did you do?" Regina huffed angrily under her breath as she began searching the rest of Emma for harm.

Emma's eyebrows pulled together above her closed eyes in a grimace as she groaned.

"I was only trying to save your life." She grumbled and rolled onto her back with an arm across her face to protect her eyes from the harsh lights.

"By rugby tackling a demon?!" Regina parried, stopping her pat down and throwing her hands up in exasperation with an eye roll.

Emma lifted the arm from her face and gave Regina an honest look. "I didn't know what else to do." Then added nervously. "It... it... killed you."

"What on earth are you talking about, Emma?!" Regina said, bewildered.

The blonde rocked forwards into an upright position, immediately regretting her energetic action and put her hand to her forehead as her head swam.

Regina rested a hand on Emma's back for support, worried that she would fall back after the sudden movement. Emma dropped her fingers from her temple, hugged her knees and looked into Regina's face with despair.

"Regina did we... Did we die?"

"What!?"

Emma locked her lips and swallowed nervously.

"The last thing I remember was intense pain and then I saw my body falling limp next to yours..."

Emma's stomach flipped as the memory replayed. Seeing Regina's body fall like that, scared her in so many ways.

"No Emma, we're not dead." Regina said confidently, sitting back on her heals with her hands on her thighs.

"Are you sure?"

"The fact that you are asking me if I'm sure that we aren't dead; makes me sure."

"Okay good. I really didn't think this is what death would look like or feel like, but... I dunno. I saw you all see-through and floating above your body... Maybe I've seen too many movies, but you looked like a ghost."

Regina snorted, but cleared her throat upon seeing the fear in Emma's eyes from what she thought she'd seen. Regina looked down, thinking for a few moments before replying slowly.

"I think, I believe, that we were removed from our bodies, 'we' being 'who' we are; our conciousness, our minds."

"So we're not really here? It's all in our head?"

"Well it depends what you classify 'we' as, Emma. What you think 'you' are."

Emma just blinked at Regina and Regina hid a smile in the corner of her mouth for her occasionally dimwitted Sherrif.

"Do you believe that you are your body? Or are you your thoughts? Or are you your soul?"

"You've lost me." Emma said deadpan.

Regina chuckled.

"Well, when you refer to yourself, are you referring to your mind?"

"Again, I say: Huh?"

Regina openly smirked at this.

"Alright, try this. Most people agree that people are made up of a mind, a body and a soul or spirit. Your mind is your conciousness, your thoughts, your decisions. Your body is your vessel for your mind, but it is still very much yours, it carries us and sustains us and helps our mind and soul experience and grow. Your soul is everything that makes you unique, it's the instinct within you that you were born with, it's what pulls you to happinesses, it's where your individual passion comes from, it's your energy or life force."

"Okay..."

"Well, I think part of us is here. I think what that thing did to us was remove our conciousness."

"So these aren't our bodies?"

"They look like ours and they feel like ours, but I'd say no, they're not really here."

Emma looked down and studied her denim covered kneecaps for a moment before bringing her hand up and smacking herself in the face.

"Owww..."

"What the hell was that?" Regina asked wide eyed.

"I thought you said we weren't really here?"

Regina rubbed her temple, looking down and shaking her head.

"Emma..." she sighed. "There you go with 'we' again. Not all of 'we' is here. Our bodies aren't here, but our minds are and I'm pretty sure our souls are too."

"Then why did that hurt?"

"What is pain other than nerves sending a message to our brain?"

"So like... Our minds have been abducted?"

"I believe so."

"How are you so sure?"

Regina held up her bare wrist.

"That thing put a dispelling cuff on me in my office when it first appeared to stop me using magic against it. When a cuff is on, it feels extremely uncomfortable for me, all my magic boils within me, just under the surface, but it can't get out. It feels like being wrapped up in too many blankets on a hot night, it's utterly frustrating. It makes me feel restless and restricted and like an itch I desperately need to scratch but can't reach. The cuff is no longer on my wrist, but I can't feel my magic... It's like it's not even there."

"I don't understand how that makes you sure that our bodies aren't here." Emma asked, noting the look of terror lying beneath the loss in Regina's eyes.

"My magic runs in my veins Emma, it's in my blood. It pumps within me. It's been a part of my existence all my life. Even before I learnt how to use it, it was always there, humming away, I just didn't realise it for what is was. But right now, it's silent, there is no hum. I have no magic. I can't feel it or connect with it, it's just simply not there."

Emma looked at Regina, studying her face as she processed the concept of her mind being separated from her body.

"So, what I saw, when you were all grey and see-through. That was your conciousness separated from your body?"

"I do believe so. The pain that I felt as 'I' was removed from my body, it's like I was being torn in half." Regina said solemnly and then added, "I think that was also my soul being pulled from my body too..."

Emma held her finger up, as if to indicate only giving her one complex thesis at a time. "...and our bodies are still laying on your office floor?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yup. I believe you."

"You believe me?"

"Look, can you stop repeating me? I get what you're saying and I think you're probably right. It doesn't mean I don't have a million questions, but you know a lot more about magic and what's possible than I do. If you think our consciousnesses have been removed from our bodies, then I'm with you on this."

Regina blinked at Emma, never ceasing to be amazed by the blonde's loyalty and ability to put complete faith into those around her.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now, I have questions. What was that thing? How are we both in the same... whatever this is if we are just conciousness? What does it want with us here? And how do we get back into our bodies?"

"Those are all questions I've been thinking myself. I have no idea how we leave this place. I'm not sure how both of our minds are in this same place. I don't understand what it can gain from us being together like this. But if that thing is what I think it was then it means to cause us the most horrific pain imaginable and when I say imaginable, that's exactly what I mean..."

The colour had drained from Regina's face and she was staring past Emma into the nothingness of the concrete wall.

"Hey." Emma said quietly, laying a hand gently on Regina's. "It's going to be okay."

Regina flinched at Emma's contact but didn't pull away, forcing her brown eyes to look into green.

"I don't think it is Emma..."

"What do you know that you aren't telling me?"

Regina took a shaky breath in.

"There were always stories, myths, that were told among powerful magic users in the Enchanted Forest. Tales of various beings from different worlds with powers so overwhelming it had to be believed that they were just that; stories. There are so many worlds out there that I've witnessed now, I'm not so sure anymore that those stories were fiction. There was one creature that I'd found in one of Rumple's books when I was... When he... When I was young."

Emma didn't know the details about Regina's lessons with Gold back in their world, but she did know that Regina was manipulated. Seeing the lost look in Regina's eyes she gave her hand a light squeeze and offered a soft smile hoping to convey her support for the brunette in anyway she needed.

Regina cleared her throat and continued.

"When the Imp found me reading about the creature, he went mad. He smashed his study to bits and threw me out. When I later questioned him about the creature and his reaction, he was as white as his snake skin would allow and told me never to speak of what I'd read."

"What had you read?" Emma asked in a low voice.

"A legend of a creature that comes from no world and all of them, that travels throughout time and matter, collecting dues. It has never had a name but was referred to, in the languages of the old ones from so deep in the past it was thought to have been during the creation of magic, as 'hrïş°mhiëř' which translated loosely as something like 'the misery of shadowed spirits', or 'the obliteration-' or '-erasure of the soon forgotten souls'."

Regina had been screwing her face up as she tried to remember the most accurate translation before she allowed her features to relax as she continued.

"It's existence is essentially a twisted karmic reaper for the reparation of wrongs. Taking payment through souls, it brings utter death to it's wards... it's victims. It uses one's own personal pain and tragedy to break a psyche apart. It mentally tortures and shatters the conciousness and somehow, through those methods, it draws out the soul and consumes it. It destroys you, but not without putting you through unimaginable suffering. It is death, completely and in the most horrific ways it is penance."

An eery silence fell following Regina's words, causing the hairs on Emma's nape to itch and even as she asked her next question she knew with a sinking feeling the answer.

"But why do you think that the hreesa... hreesemhe... hreeselmh... What makes you think that the whatever nameless reaper thing is the thing that has us now?"

Regina sighed heavily and looked at her hands so her face was hidden from Emma.  
"Because it did something to me, just as you kicked in my office door. It showed me moments, memories of... of my life. All of the most awful things I suffered and I inflicted, every moment of agony in a split second. But I was reliving them, I felt them all. All of them at once, all that pain layered on top of my heart, it was so heavy, it left me without breath, my body froze in shock. It's how it was able to put the cuff on me. It's why I told you to run Emma. It was only for a second, but it felt like eternity. It was showing me what it is capable of and if that's what it could do in one second..."

Emma reached for Regina's hand in comfort but let them drop just as Regina shivered visibly and wrapped her arms around her mid section, turning her head away from Emma.

"When I read about this creature I was so young and very innocent in many ways still... Now though..." Regina stared away, lost in memories, that made her look like she wanted throw up. "I've done some truly awful things in my life Emma. It took me years to let go of my fears about letting my walls down and with them the lies I was telling myself to avoid feeling the sickness of the destruction I had caused. I have begun facing my past, slowly going through the evil actions I took, one event at a time and atoning for each individual one in my own way. But I've barely scratched the surface and it's been hard, it's been so damn hard and I've faught getting lost in a depression every day since I started to atone. I've faced things at my own pace, but I know what's coming and I understand now, after living the life I have, how this creature works. I have caused unspeakable pains Emma, but I've suffered some horrific things as well. This thing will break me Emma. With everything that's happened to me and every hurt I've caused, those things I keep locked away deep inside my mind for my sanity. It will pull them out and it will... It'll kill me... There will be nothing left of me..."

She turned back to Emma, tears shining on her cheeks and the weight of her past pulling so deeply down on her being. Emma scooted over and just wrapped her arms around the trembling woman, allowing the brunette's head to sink into her shoulder and weep with fear, with loss, with resignation and with despair.


	3. Living Dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Parts of Regina's past are exposed and things begin to get heavy for our ladies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the reviews.  
> I'm truly loving your words of encouragement.  
> This update comes with two chapters as a seasons gift you.  
> Mentions of unwanted sexual attention and there is physical restraint and violence in this chapter.  
> Please continue to voice your opinions.

Regina had long been still in Emma's arms after confessing her fears for what was to come. Emma was absently stroking circles in the silk on Regina's shoulder, comforting the brunette as she let their situation sink in, processing the ramifications of her actions in the office.

Emma wasn't sure if she was going to be a victim of the creature's torture or not. She knew she hadn't been the intended target, but she wasn't sure if that meant it wouldn't be interested in her. She wasn't sure if the thing had meant to bring her to this mind prison with Regina or she accidentally got caught up in it's power when she tackled it. Now that she was here, would it want her to pay for her past wrongs? Would it try to consume her soul too? What kind of morality does it work by? Does it even have one or will it just devour any and all souls that owe reparation? If their minds are stuck here, how do they escape? Where would they even begin? Is it as easy as escaping the concrete doorless room they're in? Or do they have to kill the creature in order to be reunited with their bodies? Or would that trap them here forever? Are their bodies in a coma back in Storybrooke? Would their bodies still have pulses? Would their loved ones know they are in trouble? Or would they just appear dead? What if they were buried? Would they suffocate? If their bodies died, would that mean freedom from this? Would they ever want that? How bad was this going to get?

So many questions were running through the blonde's head, but the thought she kept returning to was solid and unwavering; she wouldn't want Regina to face this alone.

Emma realised Regina had calmed completely and was likely just as lost in questions as she was. She didn't want Regina to feel alone in this. Whatever happened.

"It showed me things too." Emma confessed softly.

Regina's head snapped up and turned to Emma's face in worry.

"What?!"

Emma chuckled at the way the former Queen could sound both terrified for Emma and aristocratic about the idea that she wasn't the only one shown devastating pre-torture spoilers in the same exclamation.

"That thing showed me flashes of my past too. It's why I tackled it. That split second of pain is why I was so reckless, it could cause all that terror in a moment and... and it had you, Regina... I had to try whatever I could to stop it from taking you..."

"Emma..." Regina released in a whisper. Comprehension filtering in that Emma had been shown the worst moments of her life and yet seconds later she spear-tackled the monster that had caused her such infliction.  
Regina had only a few moments of awe for the younger woman's selflessness before the guilt of Emma's future began gnawing at the back of her mind, quickly followed by anger at the woman's stupidity and general lack of self preservation.

"What the HELL were you thinking?!" Regina snapped, pulling out of the blonde's arms and scrambling up to begin pacing back and forth, arms hugging herself around the waste.

Emma blinked up at Regina, taken aback by the sudden change in demeanour.

"I just told you what I was thinking. I was terrified for you. I was trying to stop that thing. I was trying to save you from... to save you from this." She gestured at their doorless concrete prison.

"You idiotic girl! You don't think at all before you do anything! You just run headlessly into situations with no concern for your own well being! "

Emma understood where Regina's anger was coming from, she understood this woman and knew the hostility was only out of concern for what was to come. But this wasn't helping either of them and she knew the best way to diffuse the mayor's anger, however low of a blow it would be.

"Alright your majesty."

Regina's eyes flashed dangerously with fury and pain, but over the years she'd grown a lot and was no longer the woman who would fall prey to her righteous anger as easily. Regina immediately recognised her outburst and deflated visibly.

"I'm just worried about you. Why do you have to be so... such a... such a..."

"A saviour?" Emma finished for her with a wry grin.

Regina gave her a pointed look and opened her mouth to respond when the fluorescent lights went dark.

"Regina!" "Emma!" The women feared at the same time.

"Stay there, I'm coming to you." Emma whispered.

Regina could hear Emma moving and getting up, but her movements sounded somehow hollow. She didn't understand what she was hearing but didn't have time to dwell on it as Emma spoke again.

"Regina?"

"Right here."

Emma had her hands extended as she searched in the dark. Her hand connected with Regina and the mayor emitted a noise of surprise at the sudden contact. Emma started patting where she'd connected to orient herself to Regina.

"Miss Swan! Are you quite finished?!" Regina demanded as Emma realised with an unseen blush in the darkness that she had been patting Regina's chest.

"Oh my god... Sorry. I couldn't see."

"Indeed." The brunette wasn't going to admit to herself the emotions bouncing inside her but she didn't want to feel anymore alone in the dark so she grabbed the blonde's wrist and placed her hand on her shoulder, an unseen quirk on her lips.

"What do you think is happening?" Emma asked awkwardly into the darkness.

"I'm sure nothing good." Regina replied with a shiver and Emma feeling the movement beneath her hand, gave Regina's shoulder a gentle squeeze before running her hand down the mayor's arm to link hands in solidarity.

Then, without warning, the pitch black and silent room filled with an offensively white light accompanied by a deafening rushing noise. After an hour or so of the dimly lit fluorescent chamber, the women shielded their eyes against the sudden light before the pain behind their sockets forced them to slam them closed. Regina gripped Emma's hand tighter and turned her head into the blonde's shoulder in an attempt to ease the assault on her senses. Both women were tensed as the rushing noise and pain in their brains reached a crescendo that made Emma feel she would soon need to drop to the floor and writhe while clutching her head.

Both women's bodies started to sag with the effort of fighting the outer pressure when a thundering boom struck through the loud white-noise and instantly the light disappeared with the fluorescents flickering back on as the concrete shuddered and dust was shaken into the air around them.

Regina lifted her head from Emma's shoulder and rubbed at her temple with her free hand as the assault ended. Emma did similar, pushing into her cheek as she worked her jaw open and closed from where it had begun to lock in pain. Regina stepped back from Emma, still holding her hand and raised her eyebrows, conveying a message that whatever was to come here was just starting.

Another earth shattering boom ran through the room, making the women jump as a large crack appeared in the wall on the far side of the room letting in a split of light. One more almighty crash and the whole far wall crumbled away spilling blinding daylight into the room.

Regina was the first to see through the daylight and gasped at what lay on the other side of the wall. Emma looked up and made a similar noise.

Outside, there lay a forest.

An Enchanted Forest.

Regina released Emma's hand and began to move towards the trees when Emma caught her arm.

"It could be a trap."

"Emma, we already ARE trapped." Regina said with an eye roll.

The blonde deadpanned back.

"You know what I mean."

"Of course I know what you mean. But I believe that by exploring this conciousness, that that thing has created, is our best chance for finding some sliver of understanding about this creature, about how it works, or about how we might escape."

"Regina this thing wants to hurt you and it has created a prison for our minds, it can make literally anything happen. There is nothing good out there."

"By that same reasoning, what is stopping it from hurting us in here? I know you are worried for me, I'm not going to lie, I am too." Regina confessed, putting both her hands on the blonde's upper arms and looking her in the eyes. "I'm also worried for you. But I want to get out of here and back into my body to hug our son and this is an opportunity to make some progress on that front."

Emma looked out at the trees warily, then at the remnant walls of the concrete room around them and finally looked back at Regina and sighed.

 

\--------------

 

Emma and Regina had left their cell through the crumbled wall and circled from the outside to witness the single rectangular room, made from thick concrete, smack-bang in the middle of the forest. No other rooms leading off their prison room or any signs of humanity outside those walls, just nature.

A conversation had followed where Regina reinforced to Emma that it didn't matter the location of the room, because it could change surroundings any time and they saw whatever the thing wanted them to see.

Emma understood, barely, but it still made the hairs on her skin tingle at the eerie sight of their concrete captivity so meaninglessly isolated and stand-alone. It was hard to comprehend it all. The thought bothering her that if they had been left, they may or may not have starved in there. All her instincts were screaming at her that their bodies would have wasted away, even though she had a gut feeling that Regina's theory was right; this was all in their minds. She'd had to stop thinking about their reality, or 'unreality', as the existentiallity of it all made her stomach nauseated and her head to fuzz over and go numb.

As they had set out walking, they had kept the sun on their left where they could see it occasionally sending shafts of light through the canopy of the forest. Underbrush was scarce which made for easy movement and the fallen pine needles became fewer and fewer, leaving only dirt beneath their shoes with a terrain that was comfortably level and had no visible oncoming hills. The forest seemed easy and endless as they walked between the old tall trees.

A tiny shift of movement to their right caused Emma to turn her head in that direction as they continued, not sure if it had been wildlife or even anything at all. After staying moderately tense for a few minutes of walking, Emma eventually relaxed, admiring the serenity of a quiet walk in the forest with Regina for company.

"This is... nice."

Regina, who was leading, turned her head and threw Emma a raised eyebrow and smirk before she slowed to walk by her friend's side.

"I don't think we're supposed to be enjoying this, Emma." She said, letting her smile widen.

"It's hard not to though. Everything is removed, you know, our reality is gone, it's just us and... I dunno... It's peaceful... Just to be."

Emma looked at Regina and smiled shyly, Regina looked at her with an odd look of perplexity on her face for a moment before facing forward again and smiling herself.

"Yes. It is."

They continued between the trees in happy silence, Emma still musing on the ease of their friendship and odd calm she felt even though she was fully aware that their conciousnesses were imprisoned and this was all part of some maliciously orchestrated penance.

Her head down, studying the ground as it disappeared beneath them, she noticed Regina's pace had brought her slightly ahead again on her left and Emma was able to admire the brunette as she moved, walking through the forest in long sleeved white blouse, pencil skirt, stockings and, somehow, heals.

She looked at the little of Regina's face she could see from her angle diagonally behind her, commending the way she kept her head up, focused on some unseen goal at the horizon, only occasionally glancing down to manoeuvre a stray tree root. The Mayor's fierce cheekbones and defined jaw were holding her lips slightly apart to exhale as they walked the forest. Emma could see the scar on Regina's upper lip. She had always secretly thought that scar was a defining feature on her face. She admired it, respected it, even though she didn't know the story to how her friend had gotten it.  
Her dark brown hair was slightly lighter and haloed by the sun as it lit her from her other side.  
Regina really was a beautiful woman.

Emma felt a pang of something painful within her, she always did when she consciously noted Regina's good looks. Something like a combination of jealousy, sadness, shame, and... longing?  
Emma lowered her eyes immediately and watched Regina's heeled feet working their way across the forest floor.  
How could anyone have such knock out ankles?  
Her eyes travelled up Regina's stockinged legs, over her flexing calves, her delicate knees, her powerful thighs and up over her tight pencil skirt to that incredible ass.

Emma immediately dropped her eyes again feeling ashamed for invading her friend's privacy. She felt like a pervert. Everytime she started to think about what she wanted, what she lusted for, she'd feel like she was filth, that she was disgusting, twisted, warped. She felt unclean and revolting. At the back of her mind she knew why she felt that way, the memories of her time in the foster system threatening to surface, but it was too painful to open up and pull apart to fully understand.  
So she squashed those feelings down and told them to stay hidden.

The blonde continued to watch her own feet as they travelled, keeping her head from going to dark places by counting her steps and naming the different colours of brown beneath her boots.

After five minutes of coming up with different coloured names. Emma snorted loudly.

Regina turned around looking at her with wide eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Emma lifted her head from her shoes.

"Oh yea, sorry." Emma said, then laughing. "Copper Panty and Ronching Blue!" 

"I beg your pardon?!"

Regina stopped dead and turned to look at Emma fully, a look of concern on her face for the blonde's sanity.

Emma stopped too, laughing even louder at Regina's face and bending over to put her hands on her knees as she let it out, doing nothing to convince Regina of her sound mind.

"Emma...?"

Regina sounded worried and Emma had to try to sober herself to try to explain.

"Sorry. Its fine, I'm fine. It's this internet thing Henry showed me last year..." She managed out, wiping the side of her eyes and letting out a laugh. "There was this computer program made to generate names of paint colours, right? But it got it so wrong and came up with some hilarious names. Names like Stanky Bean, Farty Red and Stoned Blue." She laughed again. "They were Henry's favourites. I liked the ones where the program just made up words, like Mown Poupe, Clardic Fug and my personal favourite: Snowbonk!"

Emma howled with laughter and slapped her knee, bending over doubly as she lost it.

Regina stared at Emma like she was a mad woman for a beat before she let herself enjoy Emma's infectious laughter and chuckled.

"SNOWBONK!" Emma roared, tears spilling from her eyes as her sides split with glee.

Regina allowed herself to laugh loudly, smiling at Emma's childishness and obvious mirth.

"Of course you both would enjoy the fart and sex-move names." Regina chuckled.

"Haaaaaaa! Ahhhhhaaaaaa!"

Regina rolled her eyes and turned to keep walking.

"Okay okay okay..." Emma got out as she started to move too, letting a laugh through here and there as she sobered. "It's funny though right?"

"It is funny, yes."  
Regina replied, a smirk on her lips as she walked.

Emma laughed again and then sighed, silence falling over them once more until Regina spoke, genuinely curious.

"What made you think of that of all things right now?"

"Oh. Well, um, after Henry showed me, we memorised the best ones and repeated them to each other at random moments for weeks after, just for the laughs." She chuckled in memory. "But after that it kinda became a thing I started doing in my head to chill out when there was too much going on. To keep my head from exploding, I'd go for a walk and come up with names for all the colours I could see. I was just naming the browns in the dirt as we walked and I remembered Copper Panty."

Emma let out a single laugh.

Regina instantly wondered what was going on in Emma's head just now that was so overwhelming that she had to start naming colours. Only a few minutes before she'd been talking about how peaceful it was to be walking together. She was about to ask Emma about it when the blonde spoke.

"You should try it! It's pretty fun. Come on. Name that tree trunk colour."

Emma pointed to a fallen tree a ways off to their right that was light grey with damp mossy patches.

Regina turned in the direction Emma was pointing and frowned, thinking.

"Do they have to be funny?" Regina asked.

"Not really, but it's more fun if they're silly. Why don't you try come up with a serious colour name and a silly name to get used to it."

"Okay... Earl Grey Trea for my serious one."

"Ooooo! I like that! That's a good one."

Regina smiled at Emma.

"Alright... Hmmm. How about Mouldy Toad? No, that's lousy. Let me try again."

Emma was smiling as Regina started to get into the game when she saw the same movement from earlier play in her peripheral and Emma looked warily around. The sun had almost gone down on their left and she was hoping it was just a squirrel skittering along the ground on its way home to nest. But now that she thought about it, there had been no wildlife at all, not even a bird call or a flutter of shadowed wings.

"Overcast horne?" Regina offered, oblivious to Emma's distraction.

As the hairs on Emma's neck stood on end and she peered into the trees, a ripple ran along the forest floor and she stopped dead. Then another. But, no, not along...

"Regina, there is something moving underground!"

The brunette spun around as another ripple ran under the soil and she froze immediately, eyes wide.

"No..." Regina gasped in recognition. 

Emma looked at her, confused, before root-like vines burst up through the dirt and wrapped themselves around Regina's ankles and wrists making her cry out in shock.

"Regina!" Emma yelled starting toward the brunette as a group of root-vines exploded from the soil and enclosed around her limbs as well.

Emma yelled at the tight roughness binding around her skin and struggled against them as she watched the vines curling further around Regina's ankles in front of her and up her calves, her friend's brown eyes wide and deep with fear and recognition.

"Mother... No. No, no, no, no, no..." Regina whispered to herself as the vines circled up her stockinged legs and Emma saw Regina's body tense and her eyes slam shut as they slid up her thighs.

Emma breathed out in quiet releaf as the vines thread over the top of the brunette's skirt and wrapped around her hips and torso.  
Regina had once said that her mother had abused her, but Emma didn't know the details and she knew too damn well how twisted minds can touch children in ways they never should.

Emma felt her body begin to sweat with exertion as she continued to struggle with her own vines that were now trying to pull her to her knees.

"Regina what's happening? What do I do?!"

Emma asked frantically as the woody tentacles managed to force her onto one knee. Regina's eyes flew open from her scrunched up expression upon hearing Emma's panic and they showed such sadness and resignation as she was lifted into the air ten feet in front of Emma.

"I'm so sorry. This is from my memories... Just don't struggle. It's less painful if you don't fight them."

As she spoke, Regina seemed to take her own advice and fell still in her fight mid-air against the wooden tentacles around her limbs, taking a deep concious breath in as she let her body relax.

As if to punish her for being blasè, a new vine shot out of the dirt and rose into the air to hover in front of her face before pulling back and whipping across Regina's skin, slicing a thin cut on her cheek.

"Regina!" Emma yelled, fighting against her vines as she was forced onto both knees, watching the blood spill from the neat line and roll down the mayor's stunned face.

Regina blinked a few times as she recovered and their situation seemed to sink in with a look of clarity falling over her features and she called out into the woods.

"Come talk to me Mother, face me! Tell me what I've done wrong and get this over with!"

"You ignorant child!" A voice boomed around the forest from every direction.

Hearing her mother's voice made Regina gasp and her eyebrows to pull up in pain. It had been a while since Cora had died, but Emma knew the memory of her mother still hurt her deeply.

"You are nothing but a disappointment! You are weak. I don't know how you came to be my daughter, you are useless Regina. You've failed too many times for me to count. I honestly don't know how to punish you to get it through to you."

Regina's face was a picture of heartache as she let Cora's words sink in, she swallowed and closed her eyes briefly, taking a steadying breath before speaking.

"I tried so hard to impress you for so many years..." Regina whispered. "To fall in line and make you proud. But it was an impossible task, you would always find something to disapprove of." Regina sighed. "I'm sorry for what happened to you, the way you were treated and the steps you felt you had to take. I truly am. I wish we could have had a relationship without pain..."

There was silence for a few moments before Cora's voice, now less multidirectional and seeming to be coming from somewhere behind Emma, spoke icily and threateningly.

"You dare presume to tell me that I am to blame for your downfalls, Regina? Especially after the way you acted this morning?"

Emma tried to crane her neck around against the vines that now had her on her knees, arms wide open as they were pulled from both directions. Emma was not unaware that if Cora wanted it, she could likely rip her arms from their sockets in such a position.

Emma looked at Regina held in mid air in front of her and noticed the brunette's eyes shone with tears as she looked at something past Emma. Hearing footsteps crunching on the ground behind her, Emma saw a movement in her peripheral as Cora stepped into view.

The vines tightened around both the women's wrists and ankles causing them to simultaneously cry out in pain.

"What did I do this morning?" Regina asked with wet eyes, recovering from the tighter bonds.

"You know too well." Cora's eyes narrowed in distaste. "Crying in front of the Duke and running away. Just like the tears in your eyes now. It's pathetic. Are you a child?"

Regina's eyes went wide with remembrance and then quickly narrowed in disgust, all too similar to Cora's, regardless of the different emotions behind the cynicism.

"I'm crying because I'm hurting. As I did then. I was scared, Mother. You knew what he was doing, you could see that Slug pawing at me and being too familiar with his touches. How am I supposed to react when you keep me so isolated from other people and then you set up all those brunches with notable men looking for wives while I sit there feeling uncomfortable and objectified after you've wrapped me up in doll dresses and put me on display? How was I supposed to behave? He was revolting! His meaty hand stroking higher and higher on my thigh..." Regina shivered visibly, a look of nausea covering her face. "I hate that you put me through those. You knew I wasn't interested in your obsession with eminence. I wanted to marry for love, you always said it was foolish, but the person I marry definitely shouldn't make me feel like there are bugs under my skin. They shouldn't make me cry." She finished strongly, her head held high.

"He made you do nothing Regina, you cried of your own volition. I've taught you to put away such emotions. Your tears today, they are on you." Cora said coldly.

"How can you possibly say that?" Emma asked incredulously. "She was being touched inappropriately, in front of you, and you're saying she should have stayed quiet? And what? Let it happen?!"

It was the first time Emma had spoken since Cora appeared and the older woman turned to her, with what looked like genuine shock that Regina and her were not alone. Assaying Emma's red jacket, skinny jeans and boots; Cora raised an eyebrow.

"And what is this?" Cora responded with an insidious smirk on her lips.

"Leave her alone." Regina said dangerously.

Cora's head whipped up at the venom in Regina's voice and looked at her daughter with a unnerving sparkle in her eyes. Regina looked down immediately but Cora had heard and seen something Regina hadn't meant to give away.

Cora looked from Emma to Regina and then back to Emma again before walking closer to her and lifting her head with the vine-roots. Cora studied Emma's face for a few moments, an odd look in her eye, before she lifted her hand and stroked the back of her fingers along Emma's cheek in an disarmingly gentle gesture.

"What is your name, sweet child?"

Emma's eyebrows shot up at Cora's sudden change in demeanour, she was unsure whether to respond or not and looked to Regina for guidance.

Regina had been watching the interaction intently and shook her head ever so slightly when Emma made eye contact with her.

Emma looked back to Cora, saying nothing and setting her jaw in defiance. Cora's nostrils flared in anger which she quickly covered with a smirk and let out a soft laugh as she raised her hand behind her in Regina's direction.

A root-vine snaked out of the earth and with a blaze of anger from Cora's eyes, it flashed forward and struck Regina across her stomach. Emma struggled madly against her own root-vine shackles, yelling in fear.

"REGINA!"

As the blow had struck, Regina had let out a noise of pain and doubled over mid-air as much as her wooden restraints would allow. As she straightened, Emma gasped at the gash left on Regina's stomach, blood blossoming onto the slashed white material of her blouse as she moved.

Cora turned back to Emma and stroked her cheek again, repeating her question, equally as kindly as the first time.

"What is your name, dear girl?"

Emma jerked her head from Cora's touch and turned to Regina.

I

"It doesn't look deep, we'll get out of this, you'll be okay. This demon-woman from your past isn't who your mother was Regina. Remember who she became in the end."

Cora's anger was quick to replace her gentle touch as she slapped Emma across her face with force.

"You stupid rat! This insolence! You think you stand a chance at escaping? From me?! You?!"

Cora's disbelieving laugh that followed was cut short as Regina yelled ferociously, the cut on her stomach weeping.

"Don't you touch her!"

Cora whipped her head to Regina.

"What?! This common rodent has your devotion? Have I taught you nothing Regina?! We are above vermin like this. We are above all of them."

"We are above nothing Mother! We are just people, the same as other people, born into these bodies. No one sits above another, no one has a choice who they are born to be. If I did, I would not have chosen this life Mother, not with you."

"And I would not have chosen you, pathetic girl." Cora said cruelly as the vines holding Emma's arms outwards tightened and gave a tug.

"Ahhh!"

Emma felt an intense pain in her shoulders that released quickly and left her panting.

Cora turned to Regina looking at her stomach wound pointedly before looking her daughter in the eye with an eyebrow raised questioningly that Emma was sure meant; 'do you want me to continue?'

"Mother..." Regina said threateningly. "Don't you da-"

"AGGGGGGGHHHHHH! AAARRRRHHHHHHGHHHH!"

Regina was cut off by Emma's screams as the roots pulled and Emma's arms were drawn outwards, a sickening pop sounding through the forest as one of her shoulders dislocated.

Emma could only feel extreme pain in her arms and shoulders, a rushing noise filling her head as spots of light danced behind her eyes, her screams tearing raggedy past her throat as she was sure she was about to have her arms torn from her torso.

"WHAT IS HER NAME REGINA?" Cora yelled over Emma's cries.

"EMMA! EMMA! HER NAME IS EMMA SWAN! STOP! PLEASE MOTHER! STOP HURTING HER!"

Emma's cries ceased and the vines released her completely. She immediately fell forward from her knees into the dirt, cradling her right shoulder and gasping for air, her face contorted tightly with pain.

"Heal her! Heal her now!" Regina spat at her mother, oblivious to her own wounds.

"Do not dare to tell me what to do Regina..."

"I gave you what you wanted, heal her, I know you can." Regina said pleadingly.

Cora just chuckled at Regina and circled around Emma laying in the dirt, watching her sob for air against the overwhelming pain.

"Emma Swan... And what is she to you Regina? Hmmmmm?" Cora asked, peering at her daughter questioningly.

"Don't tell her anything Regina!" Emma managed to choke out as she tried to sit up before grimacing in pain and falling down onto her back, blinking rapidly up at the canopy as she tried to clear the lights from her vision.

"Why do you want to know?" Regina asked hesitantly as she watched Emma, making sure that she remained concious. "You came to punish me for my insolence. So punish me! Leave her out of this!"

Cora tutted at Regina as she nudged Emma with her boot in an almost curious gesture.

"Have you learnt nothing?! I am punishing you! Her pain is your punishment dear. Your defiance is getting you nowhere. Now tell me: Who is she?"

"You should be proud I have an inner passion and a drive still as aposed to becoming a withered mess, falling in line like you were always teaching me to do." Regina said, trying to avoid answering about Emma, but laying truth as she did. "You're so lost in your own mistakes and hatred that you don't even know what you want more; to raise me to be strong and powerful or to take your hatred of yourself and your past out on me. You keep switching from one to another, contradicting yourself constantly. I never knew if I was going to be praised for being obedient or scolded because I'm pathetic. To be celebrated for being firey or be reprimanded for stepping past you, out of line. Sweet gods! No wonder I took the path I did, I became so lost because of my own broken moral compass. That was your gift to me. You taught me nothing but confusion and shame!"

Cora's eyes flashed in anger again and her lip lifted in distaste.

"I am tired of this. You presume to understand so much about me, about anything I do for you. A mother looks after her daughter, that is all you need to know and understand. But for now, we are done with our lesson today. I am bored..."

A vine sprang from the earth behind Regina and wrapped its way around her neck as the ones on her wrists and feet slipped away, letting go and slithering back into the earth.

Emma watched from the ground, mortified, as Regina's weight dropped to hang by the vine around her neck.

Regina exhaled as the sudden drop knocked the air from her lungs, her eyes widening frantically with panic as she was not able to breathe back in, her stomach wound forgotten. She spluttered as the vein on her forehead bulged with her eyes and her face began to quickly turn a darker shade.

"REGINA!"

Emma struggled madly to sit up, crying with pain as she pushed up with both arms, her dislocated shoulder sending spasms across her collar bone.

As Regina clawed desperately at the vine around her throat, Emma's heart hammered against her chest. Scrambling upwards, and stumbling towards where the single vine holding Regina from her neck was sprouted in the earth, Emma screamed at Cora.

"STOP IT! STOP IT! LET HER BREATHE! PLEASE CORA!"

Cora turned to Emma from where she had been looking up at her daughter's pitiful fight, a snarl gracing her lips and looked her up and down.

Emma was leaning heavily on the vine, desperately trying to pull it downwards with her left arm. Her left shoulder, though not dislocated like her right, still screaming with pain after being drawn. Her dislocated arm swinging sickeningly loose with each tug she made on Regina's root-vine.

"Do not speak to me, peasant. You are beneath me." Cora said and spat towards Emma.

Emma turned to Cora in disbelief as she strangled her own daughter, her vision swimming as the adrenaline in her blood wasn't enough match her body's exertion. She looked up and watched in helpless desperation as Regina's movements became sluggish, her arms moving heavily as her hands reached behind her to where she was being hung from and scrambled uselessly at the wooden noose.

Emma's heart seemed to stop as Regina stopped fighting and dropped her hands languidly at her sides, a rattling, dragging noise leaving her mouth as her eyes rolled backwards into her skull.

"Regina..." Emma exhaled in shock as the vine around Regina's neck, lowered her slowly to the ground and let her fall, liquid-like and unresponsive, into the dirt.

Emma began to lunge towards her friend's slumped form, yelling her name when the root-vines returned to wrap themselves around Emma's wrists, ankles and neck.

"Forget about her." Cora threatened as the wooden restraints enclosed tightly around Emma's throat.

Emma had time to cry out in pain as the vines held her dislocated arm outwards before her airways were crushed closed.

Immediately Emma's head began to pound as oxygen was denied to her already faint brain. The pain in her shoulder now throbbing in the distant background as dark patches began to form around her peripherals.

As she fought to keep concious, her chest burning and the piercing pain in her head reaching a crescendo, Emma was faintly aware of Cora leaning in to put her head next to her own.

"She's too good for you, vermin." Cora whispered in her ear. "However you got her attention, undo it before her love for you ends her." Pulling back, Cora sadistically kissed Emma hard on the mouth.

The last thing Emma processed as Cora moved away was the fuzzy sight of Regina's limp body on the forest floor as the darkness closed around her vision and she knew no more.

 

\--------------


	4. Rallying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back in Storybrooke; Snow, Charming, Hook and Ruby rally to find answers.  
> Henry is told what is going on and Gold is asked for his expertise.  
> They witness first-hand the damage being done to Emma and Regina and desperately try to comprehend what is happening and how they can possibly help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was particularly frustrating to write, it was so important to set up the situation back in Storybrooke and there was a lot to get through. All I've wanted to do the last few days was continue writing what was happening to Emma and Regina. But I knew if I didn't get this down, it would take me forever to post next.  
> Please, again, let me know what you think.

David looked down at his daughter, laying still, on the bed next to Regina in Snow and his loft apartment.

The sunlight shone through the lace-curtained window behind the bed, lighting her blonde hair with a golden tone as the filigree in the lace cast mottled patterns over her face.

His heart was heavy. He had tried to form a close relationship with his daughter... They definitely had a strong friendship and he loved Emma with all the love he had to give. But Snow and him had missed out on so many moments with their child.  
He didn't know much about Emma's upbringing, she was pretty close-lipped about her time in the foster system, but he did know she'd been in many homes.  
He found himself envious of these strangers. So many of them having the opportunity to watch Emma grow. To teach her, to help her, to comfort her, to applaud her. To be a parent with pride.

He was proud of her now, how could he not be? Look at all she is, all she's accomplished and overcome. But there was something about being there when his 3 year-old E-Monster came hurtling down the stairs on Christmas to find her present was a puppy, or to be seated in a gymnasium as 7 year-old Emmy competed in the school spelling bee, or to drop off 13 year-old Em at the movies as she was going on her first date, or sitting on the lounge room floor with papers and text books all around them as he helped 17 year-old Emma study for finals.  
Or had a curse not been cast: Watching her riding her first horse solo at the age of 6, wielding her first steal sword at 8, attending council for the first time at 15, her coming of age party at 18...

There was so much he had missed out on and the loss of time hurt on days like today when he was looking down at his daughter's unconscious body.  
And, living in Storybrooke; there seemed to be a lot of days like today.

He sighed, running his hand through his hair, just as he felt movement on his right followed quickly by an arm wrapping around his waist and the unmistakable smell of his wife washed over him as her head leant against his shoulder. His body relaxed instantly and he settled his arm around his wife.

"She'll be okay Honey. We always make sure of that. Or she does... They both will be okay." Snow said softly as she looked down at the women laying, seemingly peacefully, side by side.

He silently turned and wrapped both arms around his wife, bringing his head down to place a kiss on the top of her head. Inhaling and letting the last of his worry leave him as he turned his head away from his daughter to face their apartment and exhaled.

"Okay." He said. "Let's bring them back to us."

 

\--------------

 

Ruby pulled up under a tree in her red Camaro alongside the school-yard fence, fingers tapping on the wheel anxiously.

Snow had left Henry with an afterschool study group when Charming had called her back after finding the scene in the office. So when Charming and Hook had come out through the City Hall front doors carrying Emma and Regina, Snow had asked that Ruby go pick up Henry.

The entire drive from the mayors office, Ruby had been wondering what she would say to Henry when she greeted him.

'Hey little buddy. Your mums were attacked and now they're unconcious.'

Ruby sighed. There were twenty minutes until the study session ended so she turned off the engine and sat back, thinking about how to word it.

Poor little dude though, he's had to take so much shit already, with his mums constantly in danger; falling through portals, being put under spells, being abducted, being tortured... How was he going to take this one?  
Probably like a trooper.  
He has always been so positive, just logical and 'right, what do we do to bring them home' kinda deal.

Ruby sighed again. There was something so harrowing about what she had felt in Regina's office. The residual hopelessness and doom that seemed to have sunk into the fibres of the room... She'd have to ask Gran if, in her wolf days, she had ever smelt or sensed a feeling like that. And also an unfinished scent for that matter.

It still made her skin crawl that she couldn't smell all of Emma or Regina, like an incomplete person... How can you smell half a smell? It wasn't that it was just faint, some of it was actually missing. She didn't understand how she could possibly know something like that from a scent, but she did and, being honest, it frightened her.

Ruby shivered against her car seat. Lifting her hands to massage the back of her neck and comfort her sense of unease.

The smell lingering on Emma aswell... It was like rotten carcasses with garbage and human waste that had been stored in an airtight, moist container for months and then that liquid mess had been dumped over Emma. What sort of thing, creature or curse, leaves a smell like that on their victims?

Ruby shivered again and restlessly got out of the car. Closing the door and walking to the front, she crossed her feet and leant leisurely on the hood, enjoying the soft breeze and rustle of leaves above her as she gave herself another few minutes before she went inside. She let her eyes unfocus, thinking about the scene in the office.

Seeing the two women on the floor like that, with minimal signs of a struggle, had shaken her. Emma was her very good friend and, even though Regina had once been the bane of her Storybrooke existence, she had changed so much in the last few years. Regina was making amends with the town and trying hard to change who she was, so much so that it was hard to identify the Evil Queen with who Regina was now and Ruby had no problems acknowledging that Regina had become a friend too, however stand-offish and guarded she could be at times.  
Seeing her friends so lifeless like that had bothered her ofcourse, but what irked her was that they were both such powerful women in their own rights, whatever had happened had happened fast and the idea of them being overpowered so quickly gave her a knot in her stomach that she couldn't shift.  
This whole situation was so unlike anything they'd faced before.  
Usually there was a heads up as to what was going on each time some evil had turned its attention on Storybrooke and its people.  
Some form of previous mischief was usually a clue: town clocks disappearing, boats appearing, portals opening haphazardly around the place, a new character in town... Something out of place was always noticed beforehand or the villain simply announced themselves as they were wreaking havoc. This though, was strange. Storybrooke had been peaceful, everyone had been going about their day to day lives, it had been easy, relaxing even, after so many attacks and ventures for so long... And then suddenly this...

"What's happened?"

Ruby was startled from her thoughts and she looked down to see Henry peering up at her suspiciously.

"Oh hey little Dude! Wow, you really snuck up on me there." Ruby looked around at the quiet school and then back at Henry. "Ahhmm, whatchu doin' out early?"

Henry looked down and shuffled his feet.

"I saw you parked out the front. When Ma didn't turn up, Grandma left me in study hall. I figured you were here to pick me up and the only time you ever pick me up is if my mums or anyone else can't. So something is wrong. I snuck out early. What's happened?" Henry finished matter-of-factly and looked expectantly at Ruby.

Ruby thought briefly that she should stop being surprised by Henry's maturity. He was a smart kid and a master sleuth, she kicked herself mentally for not parking around the corner. Not that ten minutes of missing study would actually affect such a bright kid. Ruby felt sadness for Henry though, being so used to some disaster or adversity always interrupting his life. She figured someone owed it to him to level with him.

"Okay, you're clever enough to figure all that out; you deserve the truth. When your mum didn't show to pick you up, Charming went to find her. Your other mum wasn't picking up her phone either so he went to her office. There had been some sort of altercation and your mums were both unconscious and they're not waking up. It seems magical. Hook has gone to find Gold. Your mums are now back at your grandparent's flat and I'm going to take you there so we can all start to figure out what's going on."

Henry blinked up at Ruby and then moved forward suddenly and hugged her around the waste, surprising her, as she wrapped her arms around him too.

"Thank you for not talking to me like a kid." He said, muffling into Ruby's side. Pulling back he smiled up at her. "Let's go see my mums."

Ruby smiled down at him, chuckling at his perseverance and positive attitude and nodded.

"Anytime Dude, let's go."

Ruby rounded the front of the car and watched Henry throw his backpack in the back seat as he climbed into her car and buckled himself in. Getting in herself, starting the engine and pulling away in the direction of Snow's house, she couldn't help but feel a large amount of love and admiration for the kid.

 

\--------------

 

The golden bell above the pawnbroker's door chimed as Hook entered the dark shop. He made his way towards the front counter, as he moved he became intrigued by all the oddities crammed into the glass cases lining the walls. Every time he entered the shop, the ornaments displayed were never the same and he had always wondered as to where Rumplestiltskin's wares were coming from and going to for that matter.  
A model of a ship caught his eye and he wandered over to it, plucking at the rigging stays with his hook.

He didn't like the Crocodile, that was no secret to anyone, but times like these Hook admitted to himself that it was handy having someone over 200 years old and highly practised in magical encounters to call upon.

"Killian!" Belle's voice chimed happily from the rear of the shop. "It's so good to see you. How are you?"

Hook turned from the ship and smiled at Belle as she approached. He liked the friendly librarian, she was always kind to him and called him by his name.

"Hello Belle. I can't complain, but unfortunately I can't say the same for Emma and Regina. How are you Love?"

"Oh no, what's happened?" Belle replied, concern forming on her face.

"I'm afraid we have no idea, that's why I'm here. I wonder if the Cro-... If your husband is in?" He managed to correct himself from mindlessly insulting Gold in front of Belle.

Belle smiled warmly at him, acknowledging his effort and turned her head to call into the back of the shop.

"Rumple!"

She turned back to him and smiled before hugging him. Hook was taken aback and after a few moments let his arms fall around her returning the hug.

As she pulled back and smiled again, Belle consoled his worry for his friends.

"It really is nice to see you, Killian. Don't fret about Emma and Regina, we always seem to be able to fix the bad things that happen to us here."

"Here to steal another of my wives, Pirate?" Gold's voice rang out accompanied by the rhythmic clack of his cane.

"Rumple..." Belle said sternly. "We've talked about this. Be nice, I hugged Killian. Emma and Regina are in trouble. I'm comforting my friend."

"Ah ofcourse those two would be the reason for the local sea-urchin to interrupt my privacy."

"Rumple!"

"Yes, alright, alright. What can I do for you Mr Jones?" Gold said with an unconvincing grin.

Hook lifted his chin in pride as he replied.

"It seems something new has come to Storybrooke. We found Emma and Regina unconscious in Regina's office, Regina with a magic cuff on her wrist. We're having trouble waking them from their slumber and we were hoping to acquire your services to have a look at the ladies in question."

"Oh ho ho! Were you now?" Gold said with glee. "Well. What, Dearie, is in it for me?"

"Rumple... Emma and Regina are my friends too." Belle said harshly, before finishing softly. "Let go of this contempt you hold in your heart and help them."

"I do love you my Rose." Rumple said, making a show of stroking her cheek in front of Hook, before withdrawing his hand and leaving it flamboyantly hovering at his shoulder height. "But I'm afraid I'm all out of favours today." With that, he turned with a flurry and began to clack towards his back-room.

"Rumple!" Belle said, frowning in annoyance, turning her head and giving Hook an apologetic look, then moving after her husband.

"Rumple, this isn't about favours or debts, Emma and Regina are hur-"

"The wolf said their scents weren't complete and they both have translucent lines on their foreheads!" Hook said loudly over Belle's frustrations.

Gold stopped mid-clack and paused momentarily, facing away, before he span to face Hook again, his head tilted to the side.

"Both had shiny lines on their foreheads you say?"

"Aye..." Hook said, taken aback.

"Tell me more." Gold said, intrigued.

"Red said the room was brimming with hopelessness, that Emma had a smell of rotting carcass enveloping her and they didn't seem to be all of themselves there."

Hook, although unsure why, was almost certain he saw a look of fear pass over the Crocodile's face, but as quickly as it had been there it was gone and the Imp was smiling mischievously and leaning on his cane.

"Hmmmmm. Well, it seems you have peaked my interest. I will take a look at them, but I can't promise I'll be of any use."

Hook lifted his eyebrows in surprise as Belle clapped her hands and bounced on her toes, smiling.

"Great! Let's go" She said cheerfully.

Hook couldn't ignore the abrupt change in bahaviour from the reptile but he let his features fall back into place and stepped aside, holding his hook out in a chivalrous gesture for Belle to take the lead.

Belle smiled at him and walked past, Gold motioning for Hook to follow her as they exited the shop onto the street with the ringing of the doorbell and a golden sunset dropping through the sky.

 

\--------------

 

There was a knock on the door and Snow sprang up from the chair by the bedside where she had been looking at Emma and Regina's faces whilst chewing on her lip anxiously.

"I'll get it." She chimed as she looked across at David who had been holding a tea towel and drying the same plate for the past five minutes, equally lost in thought.

He came to and sighing put the plate down, leaning heavily on the counter with his hands as he watched his wife crossing the flat to the door.

"Henry!" Snow greeted her grandson with a smile as he walked in and threw his arms around her waste.

"Hi Grandma." He said, then stepped back and looked up at her. "They're going to be okay you know. We just have to figure out what's going on."

"Oh Henry!" Snow let out, her voice heavy with gratitude. "You are so right." She pulled him into another brief hug and then let him go where he moved into the apartment towards her husband.

Ruby, who had been standing patiently behind Henry, wrapped her arms around her best friend even though they'd only been apart for just under an hour. A lot had sunk in during that time.

"Kid's a little trooper." Ruby said softly to Snow through their hug. "I told him and he just wanted to get here so we could start figuring it all out."

"Thank you." Snow said pulling back, grateful that Ruby knew to give the unrequested update.

"Hey Grandad." Henry said with a smile as he trudged over to David.

"Hey Henry, my man. How was school?" Charming asked as he pulled him into a hug.

Henry came out of the hug with a scrunched up face. "School was school."

Charming laughed and patted him in the back. "Well you'd hope so." Then sobering. "Your mums are over there on our bed if you wanna see them, Hook went to get Gold so we'll hopefully have some answers soon."

Snow and Charming had wordlessly agreed they would sleep in the loft bed. In case of an emergency, they would be able to get the women out of the apartment quicker if they were downstairs.

"Thanks." Henry said, looking a little down as he walked over to the bed. He stopped by the foot and simply looked at his blonde mother who was laying on the left and then at his brunette mother laying on the right and sighed.

"Hey mums. I dunno if you can hear me, but we're gonna fix this. We're gonna get you back soon, okay?"

The adults had been watching silently, hearts beating for the young boy and it was Ruby who moved first. Grabbing a pack of cards from a bowl of miscellaneous things on the kitchen island and headed over to Henry.

"Hey Buddy, wanna play cards, here on the floor, next to your mums, while we wait for Gold?"

"Sure." Henry said, happy to be doing something but not be too far from where he could watch over his sleeping mothers aswell.

Ruby looked up at Snow and Charming as they sat on the floor and winked. Both Charmings smiled gratefully at Ruby, admiring how quick she was to read what was needed.

\---

Snow and Charming had busied themselves with finishing the drying up and were just putting away the last of the crockery when there was a knock on the door. Charming went to answer it and greeted Gold, Belle and Hook as they filed in.

After nodding at Gold and pulling back from a hug with Belle he shook Hook's hand with his free hand on his back and then turned to gesture towards the bed.

Snow, Ruby and Henry exchanged hugs with Belle silently and the seven of them crowded around the bed to look down at the unconcious women. Their actions reminisce of some sort of strange wake.

"Tell me, Dearie. What did you smell?" Gold asked after some moments, looking to Ruby pointedly before moving forward and leaning over Emma where she lay closest to the door and where he had stood, inspecting her forehead.

"Ahm. I..." Ruby faltered, taken aback that she was the one being asked questions. "I... Well I smelt the most revolting smell I've ever encountered. It was in the room, but mostly on Emma. I puked in the roses outside City Hall it was that intense."

Eyebrows shot up at this new information.

"What?" Ruby said, looking around defensively. "It was really bad."

"Fascinating..." Gold said sarcasticly. "Can you smell it now?" He asked, looking over at Regina's forehead and the cuff on her wrist and then stepping back to allow Ruby to investigate.

"Huh." Ruby said in realisation. It hadn't occurred to her that she didn't smell it now. She lent forward and sniffed gently, getting nothing she moved closer to Emma, putting her nose next to the blonde's stomach and inhaling. Wrinkling her nose only slightly and pulling back, she looked at Gold.

"It's there, but it's so faint, I wouldn't have noticed it now if I wasn't looking for it."

"Hmmm." Gold hummed as he turned away and hobbled over to the kitchen table, sitting down.

"Any chance of a cup of tea?"

"You're kidding?!" Hook asked.

"Not in the slightest Dearie." Gold answered, indicating for everyone to join him.

"I'll make us all tea." Belle said as she moved over to the kitchen counter and began filling the kettle. "You all sit down."

As everyone made there way over to the table, Henry stayed by the bed and shuffled the forgotten cards, here he could still listen but continue to stay protectively by his mums. Gold spoke to Ruby as she took a seat, not unaware of what Hook had told him in his shop, but wanting a first hand account of it.

"Is there any more to your sensory understanding when you were in the Mayor's office?"

"Uhm. Yea." Ruby said looking to Hook who simply shrugged. "There was this... This feeling that was only inside the office, it was like a wave of utter hopelessness fell over me. I just felt extreme dread and like everything was about to end and that all my loved ones would die horribly and I should just lie down and succumb to some looming horrendous fate..."

Ruby shuddered as she remembered the feeling and Snow, who was sitting next to her, put her hand on top of where Ruby's was laying on the table, squeezing gently and sending a look of comfort to her friend.

Ruby smiled softly at Snow.

"It felt familiar somehow, like at first it was just a general feeling but then the more I stayed in the room it... The more I stayed..."

"The more it felt like memories of dread from your own experiences?" Gold finished for her.

Ruby sucked in a breath with how personal it had suddenly become, but also how accurate Gold was. She simply nodded at him.

Belle leant forward and placed a cup of tea in front of Ruby and rubbed a small circle on her back as she did so. Ruby smiled unconvincingly and hid her face in the cup as she took a sip, the table silent.

As Gold recieved his cup from Belle, he thanked her and took a sip himself.

"And what else Dearie?"

"Well... I don't really know how to explain it. But, Emma and Regina, their scents... They weren't all there. It was like their scent was a jigsaw and they were both missing integral sections. I don't know if I knew that because I knew what their scents are normally like or because there was a hollow space in the scent. I don't understand really what I was smelling. Just that my instinct was telling me it meant that parts of them were missing. They still are..."

"Mmmhmmmm..." Gold hummed again thoughtfully as he took another sip of tea. Belle sitting down with her own tea after placing cups in front of everyone at the table.

"Well?" Hook asked, frustrated.

"What does it mean?" Charming followed, looking desperately at Gold.

Gold lowered his cup slowly, obviously enjoying that everyone was waiting on him to speak, clasping his hands in front of himself on the table and straightening his back against his chair.

"I can't help you."

"WHAT?!" "Rumple!" "Bloody Crocodile!" "Gold!" "What do you mean?" Erupted from the table at the same time.

Gold chuckled with mirth at their predictable reactions and held up a hand to silence them.

"What I mean to say, is that, I won't help you."

"YOU COWARD!" "Why?!" "Rumple?" "What?!" "Why not?"

Giggling and holding up his hand again, he became very serious, but Hook interjected the Imps show.

"Why did you help us Crocodile? At the time, it aligned with our interests, so I didn't question it. But now I want to know. Why did you change your mind only when I mentioned the silver scars on their foreheads and the smells Ruby took in? What does it mean to you? Why did you come?"

Gold smirked at Hook.

"I came because I had to know. For my own self interest. I do know what has done this and I want to stay as far away from any connection to it as possible. I'll explain and maybe you'll understand why I want to protect myself and Belle by my association. But first let me ask: Has anyone tried to remove the cuff?"

Everyone at the table looked to each other silently then back at Gold with similar body language indicating that they hadn't.

Nodding, Gold took another sip of tea, looking over at the women on the bed and then back at the table of people.

"I believe that the creature that had done this is a god..."

Gold relayed the story of Hrïş°mhiëř. Everyone in the room giving unwavering attention to his words as he spoke, until the tea had gone cold and their mouths had turned dry.

Gold shifted his seat and stretched out his leg to the side of the table as he finished his explanation.

"... I believe that is what has Regina and Emma and that is why I want nothing to do with this. This creature travels through time and space, through worlds and dimensions, drawn to its targets like a moth to flame. It is a giant moth and I am a bonfire... The books Regina read when she was my charge, they were ones I had gathered to study and prepare wards, so that I would never be found by such a monster. With all the wrongs committed by past Dark Ones tied to the dagger that has given me my power, I did not want to suffer such a fate worse than death."

Silence hung thickly around the apartment as everyone processed the weight of what Emma and Regina were pulled into, before questions began surfacing in their minds.

"And what of the cuff?" Hook asked, the first to voice the same thing that had been on Snow's and Charming's mind.

"Ahhh. Now that... I believe it was used to subdue our Mayor initially. The cuff weakened Regina so that Hrïş°mhiëř could take what it needed without a fight. I imagine it has wards on it so that none of you thought to take it off, not that I believe you'll be able to do so if it is of Hrïş°mhiëř's creation... But I imagine Regina not having access to magic is also beneficial against healing and would stop her being able to block the creature from certain parts of her consciousness."

"So where are Emma and Regina's conciousnesses? And their souls?" Snow asked, her forehead creased in worry.

"They will be with the creature. Wherever and whenever it is."

"And what they are experiencing...?" Charming followed.

"Is torture of the mind." Gold finished. "It is their worst experiences drawn out of them in a much deeper, much more intense and traumatic ways."

"Together?" Ruby asked.

"I do not believe so."

"So why does it have Emma?" Henry asked from across the room.

Everyone looked over at Henry in surprise. So lost in the conversation at the table, they had forgotten he was there.

"What do you mean, Henry?" Belle asked him kindly.

"Well, it's supposed to be punishment, for things people have done wrong in the past... Why did it take Emma? I mean, Mum, I get: Evil Queen. But Ma? She's the saviour. What does she need to be punished for?"

"I wondered that myself dear Henry." Gold answered. "And the only purpose I believe it has for taking Emma was that she was either trying to protect Regina and got in its way or, for whatever reason, Hrïş°mhiëř had to take both of them to get Regina."

Again silence fell around the apartment as the weight of such an accidental fate hit them.

"Okay, so what makes it a god?" Ruby asked, breaking the silence.

"What is a god but the definition of a word we have created? A god has power above all power, it is unrivalled and all seeing, all knowing. Judging as it sees fit. That is what makes it a god. Not necessarily a god in the holy way this world knows, but a god all the same."

"What do we do? How do we get them back?" Charming asked.

"That... I'm afraid I do not have an answer to."

"Surely you must have some idea as to what we can do?" Snow asked incredulously.

"Oh there are certainly potential options that are floating through my mind, but none that I want to share or have any part of."

"Mum's bleeding..." Henry's voice sounded softly.

"Crocodile! Don't be such a coward!" Hook said angrily. "The mothers of your grandson are stuck with this creature you are so frightened of and you ha-"

"Mum is bleeding!" Henry repeated, louder, cutting through Hook when no adult made a move to help. They all turned to Henry, being suddenly pulled from their thoughts.

Snow was the first to rush over, looking at Emma and then Regina. There on Regina's cheek was a thin cut, a drop of blood slowly sliding down her face towards the pillow. Snow was quick to grab a tissue from the nightstand and catch it before it hit the fabric, careful not to agrivate Regina's wound.

"How..?" Snow asked, confusion pulling in her eyebrows.

The scraping of chairs sounded as everyone else moved to come look.

"I don't know!" Henry said, distressed. "It just appeared, but like a cut would, it started near her ear and cut towards her nose... But it was so quick... What's happening to her?"

The fear in Henry's voice made Snow's heart hurt for him. "I don't know Henry..."

Belle moved forward next to Snow and lifted the sleeve of Regina's blouse from her wrist. Snow gasped. The skin on her wrist was red and broken in places, like a friction burn. Snow immediately lent across the bed a lifted the other sleeve to find the same marks.

"It's like she's been in cuffs..." Snow whispered.

Ruby who was standing closest to Emma, lifted the sleeves of her jacket to uncover welts around her wrists too, making Snow gasp again.

Charming turned to Gold and noticed a look of terror and nausea on the Dark Ones face before demanding forcefully.

"What is going on!"

Gold, immediately masked his fear and replied cooly.

"I believe that whatever is happening to them in their conciousness is coming through to their bodies."

"But how is that possible if their consciousnesses aren't here?" Ruby asked.

"Magic works in strange ways Dearie." Gold replied. "Maybe it has something to do with their own magic that runs in their veins, maybe it's a deliberate side effect that the Hrïş°mhiëř enjoys, maybe it has something do to with the mind, soul, body connection... There are a hundred reasons for this... "

Snow walked away deliberately, disappearing into the bathroom and returning a few moments later with a first aid kit and some cloths. Sitting down matter-of-factly on the bed next to Regina and opening a bottle of disinfectant, she brought a cloth to the bottle, tipped it and then dabbed the soaked material over the cut on Regina's cheek.

Everyone was silent, watching Snow attending to Regina when, before their eyes, blood soaked up through Regina's white blouse over her stomach.

"Mum!" Henry yelled.

"Wha..." Snow startled, jumping off the bed and pressing the cloth into the mayor's stomach.

Ruby rushed forward, grabbing another cloth and moved to Snow's side.

"What happened?" Snow asked, looking up bewildered from where she now knelt beside the bed, keeping pressure on Regina's wound. "How do we stop this?"

"There is no stopping this, not without stopping a god." Gold answered.

"We will stop a god then." Charming said with conviction, moving to Henry and bringing him into a hug, mostly to comfort him, but also to keep him from watching his mother in case there was more to come.

"So until then we just let her bleed out?!" Snow asked Gold angrily, a hollow pop eminated from the bed and Snow looked down at the bodies, confused, before looking back up at Gold. "What do we do right now to stop this?"

"Oh no Dearie, they're not going to die anytime soon. The Hrïş°mhiëř wants this to last. Believe me: In this case, the body is not as fragile as the mind..."

There was quiet for some time as they all looked down at the women on the bed.

"I don't think it's that deep, it seems to be easing..." Snow broke the silence with relief, the saturation of the cloth slowing as the initial release of blood appeared to end.

"Here, replace that one." Ruby said to Snow, offering her the fresh cloth in one hand and holding her free hand open to recieve the one on Regina's stomach.

Snow lifted the cloth from against Regina carefully and when no fresh blood appeared, she made sure Henry's head was tucked against her husband before she gently lifted the Mayor's silk top and inhaled at the sight of the shallow, but long, welted cut on her stomach.

Regina's blood had already started clotting, but as the blouse was lifted away, where her blood had congealed to the silk, it caused the cut to begin to weep again and Snow quickly pressed the new cloth against the wound.

Moving her free hand to Regina's pulse on her wrist just to be sure, Snow then let out a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding, looking up at her husband with raised eyebrows, lost for words.

What more was there to come? What do they do? How can they stay on top of this? Was their daughter safe?

Charming's jaw tensed and, not wanting to bother Henry who was still wrapped in his hug, he dropped his head lightly at his wife, closing his eyes briefly, to project his meaning of: 'I know, but we'll fix this'.

"Here Love... " Hook said quietly, taking the soaked cloth from Ruby and disappearing into the bathroom with it, the sound of taps and water flowing as he washed it out.

Henry peaked his head around from where it was tucked against Charming's stomach.

"Is she okay?" He asked softly, looking at his brunette mother.

"Yes Henry." Snow said. "The cut isn't deep and it's starting to heal already, which is a really good sign. We're here and we're going to look after them both."

"What are the marks on her neck?" Henry asked fearfully.

"Shit." Ruby let out as she moved around Snow and inspected Regina's neck.

All the attention having been on Regina's stomach, they had missed the bond marks appearing around her throat and that a vein on her forehead was pulsing angrily.

"Okay, let's get you ready for bed." Charming said, having had enough of not knowing what was going to happen in front of Henry's eyes.

"What? No! I need to be here for my mums!" Henry rushed, not wanting to leave them.

"You will be, Dude." Ruby said, moving back around the bed and kneeling in front of Henry. "We all will be. Just right now, we're not sure what's going on and this is a bit much for all of us. Let's set up your bed in the loft. We can come back down again in a bit. We're still right here and Snow and Charming will tell us if there is something really wrong. Just right now there is no sense to you watching this happen."

Henry looked at Ruby for a beat and then at his mums laying on the bed.

"Come on, please Buddy. We're worried about them and you. It makes it easier for us to focus on them if we're not worrying about what you're going to see happening to your mums." Ruby said, remembering how much Henry appreciated and responded to being told the truth.

Henry looked back at Ruby, tears shining in his eyes and nodded his head bravely.

"Oh dude..." Ruby said, pulling him into a tight hug. "You really are your mothers' son."

Henry pulled back, setting his jaw with pride at Ruby's words and taking a deep breath in before turning, grabbing his bag from against the kitchen counter and trudging up the stairs.

Charming placed his hand on Ruby's arm as she stood up. "Thankyou."

"Ofcourse. Call me down if you need me." Ruby said gently with an understanding smile and followed Henry upstairs.

"Snow..." Belle said softly, moving from Gold's arms and approaching Emma, looking at her neck. "I think... I think the same thing is happening to Emma."

She pulled Emma's collar aside on her jacket and displayed the slowly reddening skin.

Charming inhaled sharply and rushed forward, looking closely at his daughter's neck.

"Is she... Is she cut too?" Snow asked from the other side of the bed.

Charming looked at his wife and then gently lifted Emma's top to expose her undamaged skin, both letting out a breath of relief.

The taps in the bathroom stopped and as Hook's footsteps began to approach, Gold moved forward and pulled Belle into his arms, causing her to squeak in surprise.

"No, no, no, no, no..." Hook said from the kitchen as he started to rush towards Gold.

"Crocodile! YOU BASTARD!" Hook yelled as a curl of grey smoke surrounded Gold and a wide-eyed Belle, leaving an empty space for Hook to stagger into as the smoke dispersed.

"Arghh!" Hook yelled, turning in anger and kicking the loft support beam.

"OW! Bloody hell!" He raged, hopping in pain and then leaning on the beam and rubbing his foot. "That fucking crocodile turned tail as soon as he saw blood!"

"Everything okay?" Ruby's voice floated down the stairs.

"Everything is fine, Hook is just taking his frustrations out on the structural parts of our apartment." Charming yelled up the stairs.

"Fair enough." Ruby called back down.

"Sorry." Hook said to the Charmings, closing his eyes briefly. "The Imp just holds a sore spot for me. I knew he was going to flee, I'd been waiting for it since he got here and his cowardice pushes my buttons. Especially since he has answers to helping them." Hook sighed, nodding towards the bed.

"Hey." Charming said, turning and putting his hand on Hook's shoulder. "We get it, trust me. We're angry and disappointed with his actions too."

Hook smiled in aggravated gratitude for the empathy.

Snow looked up at Hook seriously. "Emma has strangulation marks too."

"Damn." Hook said, sobering and bringing his hand to his forehead as he moved over to Emma.

"What can we do?" Hook asked helplessly as he watched the skin on her neck blossom with bruises.

Snow sighed. "We've all asked that question so much. I don't think there is anything we can do for them right now... But I believe Gold was right. This thing that has them, it doesn't want to kill them yet. So we have some time to figure out a way of stopping it. Tomorrow we can go to the fairies, we can go back to Gold, we can go to the library, we can talk to Granny, we could even ask Zelena for help. But it's getting late, and I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. For now, we dress their wounds and keep a watch over them."

"We can take shifts with who stays awake with them. Someone else always sleeping down here to give an immediate hand if it's needed." Charming said nodding in agreement with Snow, then adding after a moment: "I don't feel comfortable leaving them at the hospital. If Whale hears about this, as useful as he is as a surgeon, I'm worried he'll want to experiment, especially considering it's a consciousness/ body-separation thing with magic."

"I agree, let's not deal with the hospital until we have to." Snow nodded, a look of distaste on her features at the thought of what Whale might do.

Charming turned to Hook. "Help me set up the pull-out bed?"

"Of course Mate."

\---

Henry came down to see his mums after Snow had cleaned and dressed Regina's cuts and put a cooling, anti-swelling cream on both women's wrists and necks.

He'd sat for ten minutes, kneeling in the middle of the bed between them, holding their hands and looking between them before he said goodnight to them. Then silently Henry had walked to his grandparent's and Ruby giving them a hug, smiled thankfuly to Hook and went upstairs to his mattress on the floor next to the double bed.

"The boy is strong." Hook commented quietly as he took his jacket off and lay it over the back of one of the dining chairs.

"I don't know if it's such a good idea that he stay here. We don't know what else is going to happen to Emma and Regina..." Snow said slowly.

"I could always have a chat to Granny about looking after him." Ruby offered. "Or if that's no good, he's welcome at mine. I'd just prefer to be here helping, or at least feeling like I am."  
"Thank you Ruby." Snow said, pulling her best friend into a hug. "You are invaluable. We wouldn't know as much as we do now without you. We'll see how this transpires with what we do about Henry."

As Ruby and Snow turned away to look at their friends laying unconscious on the bed, there was silence in the apartment. Charming walked over and stood beside them, looking between the women before he spoke.

"One thing has me thinking. Their wounds, they're so similar... I think they're together, I think wherever they are; they're there together."

"Aye." Hook said. "I was asking myself the same thing."

"I hope you're right." Snow sighed. "They've always been stronger together. Hopefully that is some small mercy."

"Whatever they were experiencing, it seems to have stopped..." Ruby commented.

"Yes, I think so too." Snow agreed.

"You two head upstairs and get some rest. I'll take the first shift and Hook will take the bed down here and the shift after me." Charming said.

"Thank you." Snow said, looking beat as she moved into her husband for a hug.

"I'll take the shift after Hook, Snow you can take the one after me, you're an early riser anyway." Ruby added, noting her friend's exhaustion.

"Ahuh." Snow replied gratefully, yawning and taking one last look at her daughter before moving to kiss her on the forehead and heading upstairs, Ruby following in tow.

Charming turned the bedside lamp on next to Regina's head and walked across their apartment, turning lights off as Hook settled into his pull-out.

"We'll get em back Mate." Hook offered from across the room.

"Thanks." Charming sighed and as he settled down into the bed-side chair next to his daughter, he gripped her hand and whispered.

"I sure hope so..."

 

\--------------


	5. Anger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma and Regina wake to deal with the fallout from their experiences with Cora.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a little short.  
> I apologise for the delay in updating, I have most of the next chapter written and had wanted to post them as one. But life has been madness and I don't know how much time I'll have to finish it in the coming weeks, so I decided to break it up and give you at least something.
> 
> Thank you again, eternally, for your comments and reviews and also your patience with this wild hearted, insanely busy, conventional-time oblivious artist

The first thing Emma was aware of was a sharp pain at the back of her head, followed quickly by a throbbing in her right shoulder. She frowned against the light in front of her eyelids, not wanting to be concious just yet.

As she rolled her head to the side to alleviate the stabbing at the back of her skull where it rested, she felt the muscles in her neck stretch and pain shot up through her throat. She coughed against it and immediately wished she hadn't as fire burned in her neck, swallowing hard against her bruised and swollen windpipe. She groaned, feeling the noise rip up roughly through her vocal cords. Lifting her hands to her neck, she cried out in agony as her right shoulder spasmed with pain and forced her arm to drop back to her side.

She breathed heavily and let her eyes flutter open, blinking against the glaring fluorescents hanging above her, recovering from the sudden onslaught of pain. Slowly, as her eyes adjusted to the light, the concrete room came into focus and the memories of what had happened in the forest slammed home.

"Regina!“ She rasped as the image of the brunette falling limply to the earth came to the forefront of her mind.  
Coughing and wincing against the pain that speaking caused her throat, she turned her head to the left and then to the right, her eyes falling upon Regina's form, laying four metres away, with her back to Emma.

“Regina!" She rasped again, louder, wincing again with the twist in her neck.  
When Regina didn't respond, Emma turned her head back up to the ceiling.  
Grabbing her dislocated arm's wrist with her left hand, she pulled it across her stomach to sit against her left hip, whimpering as tears sprang into her eyes with the movement. Then, placing her left hand on her right upper-arm, holding tight, gritting her teeth and taking a deep breath in; she sat up.

“Arrrgggggghhhhhhaahaaa..." Emma cried out as the strain against her shoulder and neck muscles wracked waves of pain through her body. 

She sat, hunched over, her legs spread out beneath her, right arm still held against her body, head bowed, breathing heavily as she faught the cold sweat that was draining blood from her face and making her head faint.  
When the throbbing subsided and the tingling behind her eyes disappeared, she brought her head up and looked over at Regina.

Regina was facing away and her shoulder was in the way of Emma being able to see her face, but she could see the edge of a blood stain on the white silk of the brunette's blouse where it lay against her waist.  
"Regina!" Emma tried again to rouse the brunette as her stomach tightened in fear.

When there was no movement, Emma crossed her legs under herself and leaned forward, frustratingly overbalancing and falling forward where she let her forehead rest on the concrete, catching her breath, still holding her dislocated arm against her body. Turning her head to the side to look at Regina, she set her jaw and using her abdominals, she pushed off the ground with her head and came to a kneeling position, letting her head fall back, eyes fluttering closed and taking in a shuddering breath.

She swayed a little and brought her head down level before opening her eyes with determination and bringing her right knee up to place one foot firmly on the ground. Gritting her teeth again, she pushed off with her right leg and brought her left foot to land on the concrete, successfully standing up, however unbalanced and bowed over in exertion.  
Emma took in gulps of air to ease the pain and light headedness for a moment before lifting her head to Regina and, feeling like she was going to topple, leaned her body towards the brunette. She took the seven staggering steps across the distance between them, coming down hard on her knees next to Regina with a cry of pain, the fabric of her jeans tearing slightly where they skid against the concrete.  
She let her right arm fall to her lap with a grimace and with her left, rolled Regina onto her back with a grunt.  
Still unconscious, Emma noticed the blood on Regina's stomach was mostly dry, the cut along her skin thankfully shallow. Emma scooted to kneel alongside her body and brought her left hand to Regina's neck and upon feeling her pulse let out a breath of relief.  
"Regina!" She gruffed loudly, shaking the brunette's body by gripping her shoulder and then bringing her hand up to her cheek, pat her face lightly, repeating her name. 

Regina's head moved away from the tapping and her eyebrows pulled together in a frown.  
"Regina!" Emma barked roughly. 

Regina groaned and immediately coughed, her eyebrows pulling tighter in pain. "Erm-" She coughed again, wincing from trying to say Emma's name. 

"Take it easy, don't try to speak yet. Bruised windpipe." Emma rasped, swallowing painfully after a full sentence. 

Regina's eyes fluttered open and focused on Emma's face.

"Emma!" She razed, groaning against the pain it caused her. 

"What did I say?" Emma dead-panned, smirking at the brunette, allowing relief to flood through her at seeing Regina concious and moving.

Regina swallowed against the swelling in her throat and tried to sit up, gasping and trying to tilt her head to see her stomach, but letting her head fall backwards when the strain of her neck muscles proved too painful a movement for her battered throat. 

"Hey. Take it easy-... You were strangled." Emma coughed. 

Regina looked at her, frowned and lifted her fingers up to lightly touch the bruises around Emma's own neck.

"You too?" She razed, looking worried.

Emma swallowed and nodded, closing her eyes against Regina's touch. 

Regina looked down at where Emma was holding her right arm and noticed the strange drop in her shoulder and how it looked oddly flat, then remembering the nauseating pop that had sounded in the forest, she drew in a breath.

"Your arm!" Regina said roughly, grimacing afterwards.

Emma opened her eyes and looked down at her arm and then back at Regina with an awkward smile. 

"Yea. In a bit." She acknowledged. "Just take your time to wake up first, okay?"

Regina looked at Emma's eyes and seeing no immediate intense pain, nodded and closed her own, taking in a deep breath.

There was silence in the concrete prison and Emma had space to think of something else other than her worry for Regina, only just now remembering that the wall had caved in when they'd been in here last. Now it were as if that hadn't happened at all and she felt her stomach ache uncomfortably at the eeriness and omnipotency behind such an unblemished repair.  
Emma looked around and her gaze fell on the cut on Regina's stomach. While Regina had her eyes closed, Emma could properly look at the wound. It really looked much better than it had initially seemed in the forest. Jesus. What happened in the forest... That was a lot. Regina said it was from her memories. Cora had actually strangled her own daughter? She'd actually whipped her. She's actually told Regina she should have let the Duke touch her anyway he wanted? Emma wanted to ask so many questions, but she knew Regina needed to work her throat up to having such a conversation, even then, there was no guarantee she'd want to talk about it. Emma decided she'd wait till her arm was right before she brought it up.

Regina opened her eyes as if reading her thoughts and looked up at Emma. 

"Help me sit up?" She gruffed.

Emma rose her eyebrows, thinking the strong headed woman was rushing it, but shuffled back anyhow, sitting down near Regina's knees and offering her good hand to the brunette.  
Regina bent her legs to her right, away from Emma, taking the blonde's hand with her right and as Emma pulled, Regina put her left hand on the concrete to push herself up into a sitting position.

Emma allowed her a moment to get used to being upright before looking pointedly at her stomach. 

"Are you okay?"

Regina looked down at her stomach and even though it stung from the movement of sitting up, fortunately the directly horizontal angle of the cut meant it didn't re-open as she sat. She gingerly touched the dry-blooded skin around the scabbing cut, wincing only ever so slightly in a few places, but nodding for Emma just the same.  
Regina had a moment of modesty as she tried to pull the remnants of the slashed silk over her exposed bloody midriff, but abandoned the attempt quickly when she remembered Emma's arm.

"Do you know what to do?" Regina rasped, wincing as she spoke, gesturing to the blonde's shoulder.

Emma took a deep breath, closed her eyes and nodded. She had lost colour in her face and was swaying slightly where she sat.  
Regina cursed herself internally for not realising that Emma was suffering in silence and was about to either ask sheriff if she was okay, just like the blonde had asked her not thirty seconds earlier, or admonish her for putting her needs last, when Emma opened her eyes hazily, looking out from under drooping lids and awkwardly shuffled her torn knees out from under herself, laying down on her back with an 'oof' and letting her body fall limp.  
Laying with her injured side facing Regina and gently lowering her arm to the floor with the aid of her left, Emma sighed in relief as her arm muscles ceased to be engaged. Rolling her head to the right she looked lazily up at Regina. 

"Okay... So you have to pull my arm along the floor to a forty-five degree angle from my body." Emma rasped, swallowing thickly. "Then you need to put your right foot against my ribs and pull slowly on my arm." She swallowed again, wincing. "Don't tug though. A long, slow pull is perfect,. Use your foot on my torso as a way to control the pull and keep it going longer." She finished gruffly.

Regina looked down at her with wide eyes, not unaware of how easily she could mess up Emma's shoulder if she did it wrong, but she nodded strongly and taking her heels off, positioned herself by Emma's side. 

"Forty-five degrees?" 

"Forty-five degrees." 

"Okay." 

Regina held Emma's wrist and slid it gently away from the blonde's body. Emma whimpered and grit her teeth over the sounds coming from her throat, Regina hesitated for a second, hating that she was hurting Emma, even though she knew this needed to happen. Once Emma's arm was in position, Regina moved her right leg from under herself and pushed her stockinged foot against Emma's upper ribs.

"Like this?" 

"Mmhmm." Emma breathed out through her nose, nodding her head quickly, her eyes scrunched closed in pain as Regina slowly began to pull on her arm.  
Emma whimpered again, nostrils flaring, her breathing increasing and she turned her face away from Regina as it contorted in pain. Regina thought she was doing it wrong until Emma took one big, deep breath, forcing her body and muscles to relax and Regina gasped as she felt Emma's arm fall towards her just that little bit more as the ball of her bone rounded the lip of her shoulder-cup and then slipped back into its socket.

Emma let out a groan of brief pain and sudden relief as her shoulder repositioned and the pain immediately ebbed away to a dull ache in the background. She lay there with her eyes closed, allowing the amelioration to wash over her like a balm before she opened her eyes and blinked up at Regina, her face relaxed, colour already returning to her cheeks. 

"Thank you. That was perfect."

Regina let out a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding and moved her hand down to Emma's, squeezing it gently. 

"You're more than welcome." 

Emma smiled at Regina and the brunette couldn't help but return it.

Emma turned her head up to the ceiling and after taking a deep breath, tried to sit up, but didn't quite have enough energy after such an exhaustive bone relocation. Regina caught her as she started to fall back and helped her to come to an upright position.

"Thank you." Emma said, smiling sheepishly at her disregard for her own capabilities.  
She then let her arms fall behind her with a wince and she shrugged her good shoulder, trying to get her jacket off.

"Here..." Regina offered and moved forward to help slide the red leather off the blonde's toned arms, taking in a quiet breath as the jacket revealed Emma's heavily bruised shoulder and wrists.

"Thanks." Emma sighed gratefully again as the jacket came free. "Would you be able to fold the body of it up so it's long and I'll put my arm in it and attach the sleeves together like a sling." 

Regina nodded, folded and then, moving to kneel behind Emma, leant over her to wrap the jacket under her arm, unbuttoning the little cuff button on one sleeve and threading it through its twin on the other sleeve before rebuttoning it over Emma's left shoulder, allowing the most length and comfort for the blonde. 

Sitting so close to Emma, Regina remembered the ease she had felt, crying in Emma's arms, when they first arrived in this prison. It was unusual for her, she acknowledged, allowing herself to be vulnerable like that. But it was always the way between them, comfortable with each other where they otherwise wouldn't be.

Emma sighed again as she allowed her arm to fully relax into the makeshift sling. 

"Perfect." She breathed out in relief. "Thank you.

Regina hummed in welcome, pulling Emma's hair free from where the jacket-sling was trapping it against her back. The bruising on her neck caught Regina's eye and holding the blonde's hair up with one hand, she looked closely at the marks.

Regina touched her free hand to Emma's skin, fingers tracing lightly along the pattern of discolouration and as Regina's hand graced around the side of Emma's neck, the blonde leant into the touch with her eyes closed peacefully.

"I'm so sorry." Regina let out in a quiet breath, her heart hurting that Emma had just witnessed and experienced that awful part of her upbringing. 

Letting the blonde curls fall between her fingers, she dropped Emma's hair and moved around to take in the blossoming colours on her shoulder and at the front of her neck.  
Emma opened her eyes at Regina's movement, looking at the brunette's own strangulation marks and then up to her face, where her eyebrows were creased in worry as she studied Emma's bruises.  
Regina looked up to see the blonde watching her and held her gaze, letting her hand rest against Emma's neck, thumb brushing gently at her skin in a stroking motion as she searched her eyes.

In that moment, every fibre of Regina's body wanted her to lean forward and place her lips against the beautiful blonde's. So quiet in this prison, alone, sitting so close, the warmth of Emma's skin and pulse beneath her finger's, green eyes looking so deeply into her own... But she knew Emma didn't see her that way, knew it would ruin what they had, knew it would make whatever was to come even more unbearable. In this moment, she still had Emma, she didn't want to lose her in here, of all places. 

Pulling her hand away from Emma's neck, and not missing the unusual look of loss that played over her friend's features, Regina moved back to put some space between them and resettled.

"What happened?" She asked the blonde seriously.

Emma sobered at the sudden change in mood and her face dropped as memories began flooding in, silent for the longest time as she tried to find the words. 

"... I thought... I thought you died..." Emma let out, looking down at her lap painfully. "I was only concious a few more minutes than you were. I tried to pull you down when you were... When you were being hung. But I was so useless with my stupid arm." Her tone had become helpless and self-deprecating as she recalled the feeling of being unable to help Regina, eyes darting up to look franticly at the brunette. "Shit, Regina! Your body... It just... It just fell limp... and you made this horrible death rattle and your eyes disappeared into the back of your head and I thought... I thought..."

Emma was looking at Regina's face, eyes clouded, desperately searching for something, horror plastered over her features, lost in the memory. 

"Hey." Regina whispered, putting her hand on Emma's knee gently, causing the blonde to return from the images in her head and blink at her. "I'm here. I'm okay. I'm right here. Still very much alive... I'm so sorry you witnessed that."

Emma let out a shaky breath, blinking at Regina through watery eyes. "When you were lowered to the ground, I tried to go to you but the roots came back and wrapped around my throat. Your mum- Cora." She corrected, not wanting to hurt Regina further with confusion between the woman that was Regina's mother and the experience that Hrïş°mhiëř had just created. "As I was blacking out, Cora, she whispered something about leaving you alone and undoing what I'd done before I killed you." Emma's brow was furrowed as she tried to recall the words that Cora had spoken as she was losing consciousness. "Then... Well then she kissed me and I passed out." Emma finished, shaken.

"She kissed you?" Regina asked blankly, staring at Emma weirdly before looking away again.

"Yea..."

"Right." 

"Regina?" 

"Mmmm?" 

"Did your mum really hang you, did she really hurt you like that when you were younger? ...Did she really tell you to let men touch you like that?"

Regina's features pulled into a look of pain and sadness before she pulled her hand from Emma's leg, looking at the wall of their cement confinement and sighing. 

After several moments she spoke, beginning slowly.

"That was... a very specific memory of mine. It didn't happen exactly like that. You being there changed some things. But yes, on that occasion, I had run, crying, from a meeting with a Duke and she held me with those horrible vines of hers... She was prone to whipping me once or twice with them each time I was 'misbehaved' as she was able to heal me immediately after, so I was never left with scars. Heaven forbid I be misformed or ugly for my potential suitors." Regina's lip curled in disgust as she spoke. "But she never hung me the way it just happened. She strangled me on occasion, yes, but I was always on the ground when she did and I passed out from it a few times, but I'd always wake again, in my own bed at home, unblemished and feeling healthy. After a year her strangulations stopped scaring me, so it didn't really happen anymore. I think the idea of me being unphased by it put my mother off. That occasion was the first time I had lost consciousness from one of her strangulations though... I remember it so clearly. I was only fifteen..."

"Regina, I'm so sorry... Your mother should never have treated you like that... You deserved so much better." 

Emma reflected on her own abuse when she was in the foster system and the disappointment and hatred she had for the adults who treated her so poorly or maliciously. She had always brushed off their actions with the excuse that they weren't blood related, not that it should have mattered, but she had moved homes so regularly that there was no bond formed, no love grown from birth or holding her as an infant, so small and innocent. The thought of a birth mother strangling and whipping her own child, made Emma feel too many nauseating emotions at once and the idea of Cora pushing her fifteen year old daughter into the arms of some guy with lots of money and power...

"You were fifteen when your mother was setting you up for marriage?!" Emma burst out as the thought hit home. "Seriously?"

Emma looked at the profile of Regina's face, the pain on her features made Emma's heart clench in sadness for the brunette as she turned her head to look at the blonde.

"That was the custom in the Enchanted Forest, Emma. It wasn't unusual for young women to hold tea for potential suitors."

"How old was the Duke?"

"It was a different culture there, large age differences between husband and wife were common, age didn't matter as much."

"Regina, you were a child, paedophilia matters as much. How old was he?"

"... Fifty-one."

"Fuck..."

"That really wasn't an uncommon age separation, the King was fifty-six when I was nineteen."

"Regina that's so not okay!" Emma stressed. "You didn't want to marry the King! That's such grossly outdated, patriarchal, exploitative bullshit!"

Regina tilted her head on its side at Emma, eyebrows scrunched inwards in derision and a grimace on her lips as if to say 'really, we're going there?'.

"It's utterly sexist!" Emma continued, spurred on by the look on Regina's face. "Tell me then: How common was it for a woman to be thirty years older than her husband?" 

Regina sighed, letting her expression go and her head to droop. 

"Why are you defending such a fucked up culture?" 

"Because that's just the way things were there Emma."

"Reg-"

"Because it's easier to tell myself that that was okay!" Regina angrily burst out, whipping her head to Emma, eyes flashing. "It's easier to make excuses and say it was normal than to acknowledge how objectified and disgusting I constantly felt! It's easier to remind myself that it was a part of the time, so that when I look back on all the things I let happen to m-..." Regina's voice caught in her throat, thick with emotion and she bowed her head, tears slipping from her eyes to fall and soak into the black fabric of her skirt.

Emma immediately realised she had been pushing her friend too far and berated herself internally for victim bashing. 

"Shit... Fuck... I'm sorry Regina..." Emma said softly, scooting closer to the brunette and resting her good hand gently on Regina's. "I'm sorry. You deserved to be treated so much better than you were. I'm so sorry. I'm so damn sorry that all that happened to you. "

Regina closed her eyes, shutting off the tears from their escape. "Me too." She admitted, sounding completely defeated and exhausted.

There was silence between them and Emma acknowledged quietly that Regina had just shared a very painful part of her past with her. Her heart fluttered in appreciation and pride that Regina had trusted her with such a personal thing.

"How are you feeling now?" Emma asked, aware that what they experienced in the forest was pretty messed up, regardless of how common that sort of situation was for them.

Regina opened her now drier eyes and looked down at the crusted blood on her stomach, leaning back a little and gingerly touching the cut. "It doesn't hurt too much. It's my throat that's causing me the most pain to be honest." Moving her hand up to softly touch her fingers to her bruised neck, swallowing against them and wincing. She looked to Emma's own bruised neck and her arm in the sling. "How are you?" 

Emma noted, with a slight smirk, Regina's tendency to process her emotional needs last. 

"I'm okay, my throat hurts and my wrists..." She lifted her good arm to turn her purple and blue blotted skin, then looked down at the sling. "And my arm... but they're all kinda background noise. There's so much else in my head at the moment to notice the pain really." She said honestly, lifting her up eyes to look at Regina. "But I didn't mean how you were feeling physically... I meant how you're feeling... Going through that again after so many years and after losing your mum and seeing her again like that... Emotionally, that's gotta weigh heavy..."

Regina looked to Emma as if weighing up the options of being truthful, slightly shocked by the question. 

"I feel a little nauseaus to be honest."

Emma reached for her hand, squeezing and offered quietly.  
"I do too, hey. That was a lot to go through..." Then chuckling she added. "But nausea isn't an emotion either Regina. How do you feel?"

"I feel..." Regina started, looking blankly to the wall in front of her as she searched inwardly. "... Lost." She turned to Emma, grimacing apologetically for her inability to articulate what she was feeling. "I feel drained. Sad. Scared. Ashamed..." She dropped her head to look at her lap again, smoothing out the material of her skirt as she hid from Emma's gaze. "Angry... Really angry..."

"Anger is so good Regina." Emma encouraged. 

Regina lifted her head to look at Emma in disbelief and horror. 

"Have you met me?!" She asked incredulously, causing Emma to laugh softly. 

"I most certainly have, Miss 'Have a poisoned turnover'." Emma said chuckling, then seeing Regina's features drop at the memory of Henry and hurting him, she immediately put a hand on Regina's knee and apologised. "Shit, sorry. I didn't mean it that way. I wasn't thinking. This anger you have now is good though." Emma squeezed her hand on Regina's knee warmly and in encouragement. "This anger is appropriately directed and completely valid. I know when you were Queen you had a lot of misplaced anger, especially for Snow. And I know that that anger ate you up inside and caused you a lot of pain. But this is the first time I've ever heard you say you were angry with Cora for something she'd done."

"What does it matter who I'm angry with? Anger is anger. It's a poison, it creeps through you and spreads venom to all those near you." 

"No. No, Regina. You're so wrong. We need anger. It's how we immediately recognise when we are feeling unsafe or disappointed in other's actions or taken advantage of or disrespected. It's what we do with that anger and how we direct it that can be harmful. You should be angry! You deserve to be angry! So damn angry! I'm angry for you!"

"I don't like it..." Regina said, pulling her knees up and hugging them in protection, wincing a little and pulling back to look down at her stomach, checking her wound hadn't broken open and then hugging her knees to herself again. "Feeling angry... Too many awful things have come from it..." 

Emma thought hard at Regina's words. Something didn't seem right about such a statement. 

"I don't think that's entirely true." Emma said slowly, not wanting to offend Regina or to put her off being so open. "Can I share my perspective with you?"

"Of course Emma." Regina said, a little suprised at the blonde for asking permission. 

"Well I know after... after Daniel died... After he was murdered." She corrected. "I know you felt overwhelming sadness and pain, who wouldn't after witnessing something as awful as that. I know it took you a while to develop your hatred for Snow. Well... I think you were in shock. I think you went numb with grief and when you thawed you realised that all these bad things had happened to you, so quickly in succession, after losing him... Being married off, being stuck in the castle, being manipulated by Gold and Jefferson and Whale... And you let yourself feel angry for the first time in your life. Rightly so! You just simply misplaced it. I think when you had finished grieving, and you felt anger, you were still vulnerable. You didn't have the power you have now. So all the people you should have been angry with, Cora, the King, Rumplestiltskin; they were all a threat still and to allow yourself to be angry at them could have caused you an immediate retaliated physical threat. So you placed your anger in the one person that resembled your own vulnerability and naivety, both things that you had been taught by your mother as bad things. You placed your anger in Snow... You'd been taught that your innocence only got you hurt and your anger at Snow was because her own innocence had also gotten you hurt. Her 'foolishness', as your mother had taught you, was the only thing you could empathise with and understand, so you held onto that. But how could you not have?! You were nineteen Regina! You'd barely begun to develope an adult brain and all you'd been taught your entire life was that your kindness and sensitivity caused you pain and punishment. You'd been nurtured into having a twisted view of the world and a belief that innocence and geniality were bad things. If it had taken nineteen years to build that understanding, ofcourse it would take a long time to unlearn a belief system like that. Who you are now... You've had thirty plus years in cursed Storybrooke and the time we've known each other to challenge those ethics and see that they aren't the truth. Knowing what you do now, I don't think you'd misplace your anger again. This anger you have now is directed at how your mother abused you, it's at how she encouraged men to sexually molest you, it's at how she was so broken and literally heartless that she raised you with so much fear and confusion that you stepped into the world so disadvantaged and underprepared..."

Regina had been staring at Emma with wide eyes the entire time she'd been talking and when she gave no indication of commenting or even blinking, Emma continued. 

"So I don't think awful things have come from your anger. I think awful things came from you not being a naturally angry person, suffering greatly, feeling for the first time such intense anger and then appropriating it in alignment with the way you'd been manipulated to see the world... You are not your anger Regina and your anger isn't bad. You have changed so much and I know that you have worked so hard to change your ingrained nurture, groomed into you by your mother, to now reflect your sensitive and caring nature. So much so; that you would never act out in violent anger now the way you did when you where the Queen. It's good to be angry at your mother Regina. That's the appropriate response for what she did to you. You won't stay angry forever, you would know that now more than anyone, being able to call Snow a friend now, but you have spent over thirty years of your biological life and over sixty of your chronological life, not being angry with the right people. Allow yourself this anger Regina... It's about damn time."

As Emma had continued, Regina's eyes had slowly filled with lamentation as she heard the truth in Emma's words and the permission she was now receiving. Eventually her grief overflowed and she sat, tears silently falling down her cheeks as Emma spoke. When the blonde stopped talking, Regina's brow dipped and she took in a deep, trembling breath, holding it briefly as she looked into Emma's pure, understanding green eyes and let it out as she whispered shakily. 

"Thank you..." 

As she voiced her gratitude, the emotion in Regina's heart flooded over and she hugged her knees tighter, letting out a sob as her tears began falling heavier.

Emma shuffled closer to Regina and wrapped her good arm around the brunette, pulling the crying woman against her. Regina allowed herself to surrender into the hug and was able to free her right arm to wrap around Emma, gripping at her back as her own body shuddered with each inhale while she wept. She leant her head against Emma's good shoulder, facing away, not wanting to cry into Emma's ear, as the blonde rubbed soothing circles on her back. 

"Thank you." she cried, reiterating her gratitude again. "You've never wanted me to be anything other than who I am... You've always believed that I was able to change how I faced the world with everything that I carry." She managed out as she cried. "That who I am at heart was not what needed to change. You were the first person that treated me that way since my fath-" Regina's emotions took her again as she gripped tighter at Emma's back and gasping for air, cried with so much weight.

"I don't see an evil person when I look at you Regina. I just see a woman that has been hurt in horrendous ways and wasn't shown the compassion she deserved." Emma said, leaning her head to the left to rest against the back of Regina's. "Trauma cuts deep wounds and if they're not treated properly or understood, they can cause lifelong pain and problems. When I look at you I just see your sensitive heart, scarred with damaged and mistreatment that nobody has bothered to help you clean."

Regina let her body wrack against Emma's as her friend's words sunk in, crying for all the times she was hurt and left confused and lost.

"When all those horrible things were happening to you, you were alone Regina. There was no one you could turn to for friendship, to talk about what life was like, to share your experiences with and get perspectives and opinions. No one had your back..." Emma moved her hand up from Regina's back to hold the brunettes head and stroke comfortingly at the back of her hair beside her own head. "But you have friends now and you are held. Those parts of you are healing, those wounds are being cleaned and understood. We're here for you and we've got your back."

"Oh my god, Emma..." Regina sobbed in gratitude as a fresh wave of emotion washed over her at how perfect the blonde's words were.

Emma's bruised throat throbbed painfully from so much use and as Regina cried against her, she allowed the silence and thought quietly to herself about all that had just tumbled from her mouth. 

It was truth, she hadn't fabricated any earnesty, but it still surprised her how easily it had come. She knew she spent a great deal of time thinking about Regina, but it did shock her a little, in retrospect of sharing her perspective with Regina, at how much she'd put together an understanding of her friend. Emma realised that a lot of what she'd said was a reflection of her own upbringing. She'd once asked Regina, within the first week of meeting, what happened to her to make her so cruel and calculating. Maybe she had recognised a traumatised soul in Regina and knew too well the cicatrix of being so exploited and disrespected. Emma knew she could have easily turned her own anger outwards, but it was unsafe for her to do so when she was young, much like Regina. But unlike Regina, she didn't have luxury, didn't have power, didn't have money, so instead she became a loner and withdrew, becoming smart and unseen, deciding that was the best way to survive. Emma wondered what they would be like if their places had been swapped and they'd grown up with each other's trauma. She imagined they wouldn't be too different from who each other was now.

Feeling Regina move, Emma noticed that the crying had calmed against her and, no longer clutching at her back, the brunette was wiping at her eyes. Emma brought her hand down from Regina's head to her back again and squeezed the dear-hearted woman to her.

"How are you feeling?" Emma asked softly. 

Regina chuckled wetly. "Exhausted, parched, I have a headache, a little numb... But lighter. So much lighter..." She pulled back from Emma and looked at her through watery, mascara smudged eyes. "Thank you. For forgiving me. For understanding me. For always seeing me. I don't know how... But thank you. Your friendship... It means so much to me..."

"I am always here for you. Always." Emma smiled and brought her left thumb up to Regina's face, wiping off a dark smudge under her brown eyes. The brunette let her eyes close at the touch and as Emma's hand stilled on her face, cupping her cheek, she felt Emma lean forward and her lips kiss softly against her forehead.

As Emma pulled away, Regina hummed, leaning into her hand and with her eyes closed Emma was able to look at Regina's face openly. Admiring how beautiful a woman she was, Emma glanced down at the brunette's gorgeous lips, wanting nothing more than to press into them with her own. Immediately those feelings of shame and sadness returned for Emma and she began fretting about having kissed Regina on the forehead.

Was that too much? It just felt natural at the time. Friends would comfort each other like that, wouldn't they? What did Regina think of it? She seemed content, didn't seem disturbed. That wasn't overstepping... Was it? Regina wouldn't think she meant it any other way than platonic. She didn't, in that moment, it was just compassion. Regina knew that right? Regina wouldn't think any way other than that you're friends. Regina doesn't think of you that way. 

Emma pulled her hand from Regina's face, heart heavy, but trying to pick herself up by being mindful that she just helped this incredible creature find some solice from her life-long torment. 

Regina opened her eyes at the loss of Emma's hand on her cheek. Blinking at the blonde as she pulled away.

"Thank you for sharing what happened between you and your mother with me." Emma said honestly. "I'm sorry I pushed you earlier with the Duke's and King's ages. You did absolutely nothing wrong when you were a girl, you didn't let anyone do anything to you, I hope you know that. You were exploited and manipulated and so many others were in the wrong, not you." Emma felt her anger building, the idea of some entitled old dude touching Regina without consent made her feel nauseas all over again. Running her hand through her hair in frustration, she let out a long huff, then dropping her chin to her chest and taking a breath. "I'm so sorry Regina. I'm still so fucking angry for you..."

"Emma..." Regina said hesitantly. 

"I know... I know..." Emma said smirking at herself and deciding it was time to lighten the mood. "Let's ease into the anger acknowledgements... Cool it Saviour... Blah, bl-" 

"No, Emma!"

Emma looked up quickly at the alarm in Regina's voice. The brunette was staring wide-eyed over Emma's shoulder. Twisting her body round and snapping her head in the same direction, she let out a breath of utter disbelief.

"Oh no fucking way..."

 

\--------------


	6. Trained

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An intrusion reveals that Regina won't be the only one to relive traumatic experiences as untold stories are shared. New magical rules to their prison are experienced and Emma learns the hard way that Regina will take any opportunity to learn as much as possible about the creature that has them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you couldn't tell by my extended period of silence; work has consumed me, shat me out and started eating me again. 
> 
> I genuinely wish I could write these faster than I have been without compromising my writing style and depth hey.
> 
> Thank you for your patience.  
> Thank you for your reviews.  
> Thank you for your interest.
> 
> Enjoy and as always, please share with me what you think. <3

"Oh no fucking way..."

There on the floor, tucked against the wall, was a silver pet bowl. A silver pet bowl that Emma hadn't seen in over twenty-five years.

"Where did it come from?" Regina asked warily, all thought of their previous conversation put on hold with the shiny intrusion.

"Regina..."

"Is it a dog bowl?"

"Regina..."

"What's it doing here?"

"Regina..."

"It wasn't here a moment ago."

"Regina..." 

"Should we go to it?" 

"Regina!"

Regina turned her head to look at Emma with abrupt awareness.

"I know that bowl."

"What?"

"I know... that bowl."

Regina suddenly noticed that Emma's face had turned white and clammy.

"Emma are you okay?"

"Yea, um... I'm..." Emma started, turning her head around the room, looking behind her and peering into the corners with sudden anxiety. "It's um. Shit... It's from my childhood."

"Really?" Regina asked, so intrigued about the thought of Emma with an animal companion that she forgot her concern. "You had a pet?"

Emma turned her head to her with a mixed look of revulsion and 'are you daft?'.

"I didn't have a pet..."

"Then wha-"

"I was the pet."

There was silence for a moment as Regina processed Emma's words. 

"... Emma...?"

"Okay, so this could..." She faltered, looking around the room again with wide-eyes, searching frantically for threats or a way to escape and swallowing awkwardly. "This could get kinda gross."

Regina could tell Emma was unusually on edge and with the revelation of her being a pet in some shape or form, it made Regina's stomach drop.

"Emma what-"

But Regina was cut off as a small section of the cement wall five metres to the right of the silver bowl and a little bit bigger than the size of a catflap, slid forward and up effortlessly, leaving a rectangle of darkness. Both women whipped their heads to it, sitting frozen, alert, eyes boring into the pitch black beyond the wall.

After a few moments of silence, a gentle jangling sound emenated from the hole with the smell of catfood wafting over them and Emma slapped a hand over her mouth. Regina turned to Emma, looking questioningly at the wide-eyed blonde. Emma slowly pulled her hand from her mouth as the chiming grew louder, not moving her eyes from the square of darkness, swallowing nervously, her breathing becoming laboured as she moved the hand to hold her stomach in nausea.

Regina turned to look at the hole, lost as to what was going on, and then back to Emma just as the blonde ducked her head away and threw up on the cement.

"Emma?!" Regina asked, startled and moving to place her hands on Emma's back in comfort, holding back her blonde hair as her torso heaved.

"Emma what's going on?" Regina asked firmly. She had never known Emma to throw up in all the time she'd known her and concern for the blonde was beginning to put her on edge.

Emma stayed leaning over as she caught her breath, spitting into the mess, trying to remove the fowl taste from her mouth, her whole body shaking beneath Regina's hands. Taking a deep breath, she turned her head to look into the hole and then back at Regina, her face exposed and helpless.

"Sorry. That smell... It just... Fuck..."

"I don't understand..." Regina worried, looking to the bowl of catfood and then back to Emma, confusion evident on her face as she rubbed the shaking woman's back.

Emma swallowed, eyes darting between the hole in the wall and Regina. "When I was a kid, about six..." She began quickly. "I had these crazy foster parent's for a couple of months... and they were that; crazy." She turned her head, spitting out remnant bile before sitting up a bit straighter and continuing. "They were the most nuts of all my fosters. I mean some of them were alright, some were actually kind, but most were mean and some were gross abusive arseholes, but... Rob and Jessie were the only ones that were actually messed in the head to that level..." Emma looked down in shame, scrunching her nose at the fishy smell, as her body continued to shiver and the bell got louder. "They um... They used to-"

Emma froze as movement in the hole caught her eye. "OH FUCK OFF!" She yelled angrily at the room, her eyes threatening tears.

Regina's mouth dropped in shock as she turned from Emma to see a small child crawl nervously from the hole.  
Scruffy and skinny, so worryingly skinny it made Regina's stomach flip as the girl hesitantly looked around. A blue collar was visible around her neck beneathe her blonde hair as she moved her head to search the room.

The girl looked defeated and exhausted but held an underlying anger that simmered in her eyes as they scanned around. She didn't seem to see Emma and Regina sitting across from her at all as she took in the room, eyes travelling right through them both before she spotted the bowl on the floor to her right and began to crawl towards it.

"Nope. No. Uhuh! No!" Emma said adamantly, scurrying upright and rushing towards the girl.  
As she ran, about three metres from the young child, Emma's head suddenly sprung back as if she had been punched squarely in the face and her body ricocheted backwards, hitting the floor hard and crying out as her tender shoulder connected with the concrete painfully. 

"Emma!" Regina yelled, scrambling over to the blonde, holding her face and checking her eyes. The sheriff blinked up at the fluorescents, blood oozing from one of her nostrils from the collision. 

"Wha-?" Emma asked, eyebrows pulled in with confusion as her head swam.

Regina looked to the young girl, crawling towards the bowl, she seemed completely oblivious to the fact that Emma had just run at and collided with something right beside her. Regina tore her eyes away from the child and looked into Emma's face. 

"Are you alright?" Regina worried, gently touching Emma's shoulder and temple simultaneously. 

"I think so... What happened?" Emma blinked at the brunette above her. 

Regina looked towards where Emma had hit, watched the little girl continuing to crawl, unphased. Making sure Emma was okay with one last check of her eyes, Regina rose to her stockinged feet and approached the girl slowly.

"No, Regina don't!" Emma protested fearfully, trying to sit up. 

Ignoring Emma's behest, Regina spoke gently to the young girl crawling alongside the cement wall. 

"Can you hear me?"

The girl didn't respond in the slightest and as Regina reached the point where Emma had recoiled, her knee hit something hard and invisible, making her start with surprise. Bringing her hand forward to rub at the dull throb in her kneecap, her fingers crumpled as they hit the same solid thing. Her eyebrows creasing, Regina moved her hand to find a flat surface beneath her fingers where, to her eyes, she was touching mid-air. She took a step back and ran her hand high up the smooth, hidden facade and then outwards along it to the left and down to the floor. As she straightened again, she turned back to Emma, who had been frozen, watching Regina's movement with raised eyebrows from the ground.

Emma struggled upright, cradling her angry shoulder and moved to the left, standing next to Regina.

"An invisible wall..." Regina whispered mostly to herself, perplexed. "What possible reason..."

Emma brought her good hand to touch the wall and gasped as her fingers connected with it, running her hand along it just as Regina had done. Bringing her fingers up to her face, she looked at them in wonder, rubbing her thumb over them.  
Past her fingers, Emma saw that the young girl had reached the pet bowl and was lowering her head to the fishy casserole substance that it held.

"HEY!" Emma yelled suddenly, banging on the wall and making Regina jump in fright.

"HEY! DON'T EAT THAT! HEY YOU! EMMA! STOP!"

Emma started getting frantic as the girl began eating, completely unphased by Emma's actions.

"Emma..." Regina said cautiously.

Emma couldn't or didn't want to hear Regina as she took a step back, lunging uneffectively at the concealed barrier with her good shoulder, continuing to yell at the girl.

"HEY! STOP EA-"

"EMMA!" Regina yelled over her friend, putting her arm in front of Emma and grabbing her good wrist, turning her away from their small visitor as the blonde had stepped back to throw herself at the wall again.

"Explain to me: What is going on?!" Regina asked in a mayoral tone, reaching up to Emma's face and wiping the blood from under her nose with her thumb, appreciating that the girl, now eating from the pet bowl, was a very young Emma.

Emma looked at Regina, breathing heavily, her eyes screaming distress as she began to turn her head back to her younger self three metres away. 

Regina, recognised that Emma was frightened and not completely with her so she ran the hand that was holding Emma's wrist up her arm and down again, soothingly, claiming her attention. 

"Hey, we're in no immediate danger, she's not really there, nothing is happening to us directly in this moment, it's part of the Hrïş°mhiëř's mind-manipulation. She's okay and you're okay."

Emma blinked at Regina, her features showing recognition, then looked back to young Emma, her face crumpling from one of fret to one of exhaustion. She let her body weight drop to the ground wearily, sitting cross legged and leant her good shoulder and head peculiarly against the invisible wall. Looking up at Regina, her younger self in her peripheral, the sound of sloppy chewing filling the too quiet room; she sighed. 

Regina sunk to her knees in front of Emma and waited patiently for Emma to talk.

"So... You've probably understood that that's me." Emma said taking a deep breath and rocking her head against the wall in a gesture toward the child on the other side of it..

Regina looked sadly at the roughly six year old girl, who's blonde head was deep in the food bowl, her bell clinking against the metal vessel.

Regina looked back to Emma, eyebrows pulled in and nodded her head.

Emma swallowed.

"So my foster parents aaa..." She pulled her lower lip inward in nausea and stopped talking, raising her hand to her lips and swallowing again before continuing. "My foster parents at that time woullll-"

She pushed off the wall and turned her head away, retching, but not bringing anything up. After swallowing a few more times and feeling confident she wasn't going to vomit, she leant back against the wall, looking ashen and apologetic.

"Sorry. That smell... I usually have to leave the rooo..." Her lower lip pulling inwards again and her shoulders dropping as she almost gagged, swallowing and putting her hand against her nostrils, closing her eyes as she shook her head.

Regina hated seeing Emma nauseas and, lost for any other way to help, she reached forward to place a hand of comfort on the blonde's torn denimed knee, her heart constricting as Emma flinched at the contact, her eyes flashing open in fright. Regina immediately pulled her hand away and held them up in safety. 

"I'm sorry. It's okay, there's no obligation to tell me."

Her body shaking and her art pounding, Emma could feel her nervous system firing in alert as her stomach rolled, her breathing shallow, her skin shivering so cold and sweaty, her back prickling feeling exposed, her processing brain slow and her body sagging in places as energy and blood was deverted to her limbs to take flight, fight or freeze. 

"Its not the story. It's just the smell and the sounds..." Emma said weakly, the wet chewing, tinkling of the bell and fishy aroma a background track of sensory memory setting off strong reactions in her body. "Its just triggered a lot of... response..." 

Regina's thoughts immediately sprung to the smell of horses, to the feeling of electrical shock, to the sound of shattering glass, to the taste of blood; her emotions fluttering wildly as she recalled so many times she was painfully affected by her environment. 

Not understanding why, but her heart aching for Emma's nervous system being so overloaded with triggers, Regina looked around the room uselessly for someway to help. The only things in the barren concrete prison were a splattering of vomit and her own heals from where she had taken them off to relocate Emma's arm. 

"It's okay." Emma said upon seeing Regina looking to help, grateful regardless. "I'll adjust." 

"It's not okay Emma, you're obviously affected... Here..." 

Leaning back and looking down at her stomach, Regina pulled the lower half of her slashed silk blouse out from where it was tucked into her skirt, the scrap of fabric hanging uselessly from her midsection. She held her top and the scrap in both hands and tugged, careful to only rip away the part that was already leaving her waste exposed. 

"Regina, don't-" Emma started, realising too late what she was doing as the brunette tore the silk off and held the white fabric out for her. 

"You didn't have to do that..." Emma said quietly, Regina's treatment of her clothes a little shocking and out of character for the mayor's usually over-proper decorum. 

"It's not ideal..." Regina said, referencing the dirt smears and the blood stain along the edge that had been closest to her stomach wound. "But I know how much smell can trigger unwanted memories... It'll help somewhat at least."

"Thank you."

Emma took the silk gratefully, noting Regina's semaphorism and was curious about her own experiences with smell and memory, when a fresh wave of catfood wafted past them and she hastily covered her nose with the material, fighting the urge to gag again. 

Instantly Emma felt her body relax and her brain to clear, not just because it shielded the stench of fish but because suddenly Regina was all she could smell. It was giddying for the blonde and she closed her eyes, enjoying the sanity and comfort that Regina filling her olfactory sense brought her.

Emma remained still, breathing in deeply, letting the indulgent relief from the makeshift kerchief calm her nervous system as she allowed her mind to swirl. An image played of laying relaxed, Regina cuddled against her chest, the brunette's bedsheets tangled through their legs as they dozed happily in post coitus bliss. The late morning light entering through the mayor's curtains and alighting playfully on their naked skin, the smell of the incredible woman in her arms all around her, consuming her as she dropped kisses atop her brunette head into burnished tresses.  
Emma sighed at such a happy and peaceful existence, but as the contented noise left her lips and passed into the silk, she returned to reality and remembered with a cold wash of fear that she had an audience. 

Regina had found herself staring at the way Emma was holding the fabric of her top to her face in an almost pleasurable trance. 

Is Emma smelling my top? Is that what is happening or is that just what I want it to look like? Is she enjoying my smell? Is she enjoying my smell that way? Could she be thinking about me in that way?  
She felt a jolt of arousal spark low in her belly as she watched Emma's face; eyes closed and enjoying breathing in the silk.

Regina found herself fantasising about shifting closer to the blonde, straddling her crossed legs and pulling her torso tight against the sheriff's body as she tugged the silk from her face, surprise frozen on the blonde's features as Regina lowered her head to look up at green eyes through drooping eyelashes before lifting her thumb to rub across Emma's bottom lip, biting her own as she lustily watched the pink flesh bounce back into place. She imagined fluttering her brown eyes up to meet shocked green for a moment before pulling the blonde into a passionate, reciprocated kiss. Emma's fingers threading through her own brown hair and cradling her head. Regina whimpering at the gentle tug in her hair, sliding her hand down the blonde's lower back, drawing a sigh from the sheriff as the mayor tucked her hand into a tight denimed pocket and squeezed. Giggling as the blonde's hips bucked up, jumping away from the unexpected, but enjoyable action, Regina's mirth turning into a heady breath as Emma's thrust sent arousing tightness through her lower belly and she rolled her own hips into the sheriff's firm abdominals, moaning at the sensations the friction caused-... 

Emma fluttered her eyes open to find Regina looking at her curiously. Both women started at the sudden eye contact following such intimate imaginings about the other and looked away. Both so flushed with their own embarrassment, they didn't notice the other's. 

"Thank you, this actually helps so much." Emma muffled aginst the fabric, her neck and face red with blush as she covered the personal moment she had been having with the brunette's blouse, feeling perverted and ashamed. 

As Emma had blinked to meet the brunette's gaze, Regina had felt her heart kick up a beat, looking down at her lap and feeling her face grow hot. But as the blonde simply thanked her for the shield from the smell, she felt her heart deflate and an ache to settle in her chest. She acknowledged, sadly, that ofcourse Emma wasn't enjoying the fabric the way she wanted her to. Dropping her head to look at her stockinged knees, hoping to hide her dejection, she then looked up at the young girl with her head in the pet bowl and spoke absently for Emma to return to her explanation. 

"Please, continue your story..." 

Emma took a moment to collect herself as her thoughts were jolted uncomfortably back to her unsavoury past. Looking over at her younger self, she swallowed, lifting the material away from her mouth a little so her words weren't as muffled and taking a deep breath, she tried again to explain what her younger self was doing.

"Right, um... So two of my foster parents when I was a kid, Rob and Jessie, they would... Um. They would only give me catfood to eat." She swallowed nervously as the reality of the words left her mouth and she looked down at her jeans, shame filling her chest as she continued. "On most weekends they'd not give me any food at all and pretty much starved me. Well, not pretty much, they did starve me... They kept me inside the apartment when I wasn't at school. Made me wear that fucking blue collar and walk around on my hands and knees. Stroking me randomly. I hated that; being so low to the ground... I always felt so vulnerable with my back to everything above knee-height and my neck was constantly aching from holding it up to see where I was going and keeping an eye out for them, just so paranoid when they were around..."

Emma looked up sadly at her younger self and gagged a little before swallowing, looking back down, completely avoiding Regina's face and chuckled darkly. 

"It all started as a game within the first week of me going home with them. Playing around, pretending to be cats. It was fun, I was smiling and laughing and I hadn't done that in a while, it felt good, easy... and then it turned so quick and I didn't know my way out. I'd already gone along with it and it's always so much harder to ask someone to stop after... After you initially consented." She sighed heavily, with a weight that held more than the story she was telling. "As a kid it was even harder to navigate that kind of manipulation..." She swallowed and shook her head slightly, looking down. " Anyway, they weren't too fussed if I chose not to eat the catfood they offered during the week, I think not feeding me on the weekend was their subtle way of getting me to eat at least some of it during the school days so I wouldn't collapse or anything noticeable, anything that would draw attention."

Emma leant forward lethargically and rested her good elbow on her crossed legs while still holding the silk to her face with the same arm, her right arm hanging forward in the sling where her fingers began fiddling with the torn edges of denim on her left knee. Not daring to look up at Regina for fear of the disgust she would see directed at her, she took a deep breath and bravely shared her shame. 

"They didn't really mind if I went hungry, but they would get super angry and crazed if they found out I had eaten human food... I had some behavioural issues as a kid and they knew I got into trouble at school for not having good attention. They knew if I didn't eat, I could barely keep my head up in class. They knew I'd just get labelled as distracted or rude which made it all just so much harder. So I... I had to eat the catfood. For breakfast. Every day..."

Her hand had started shaking where it was fraying the tear on her knee and she took a deep breath before stilling it and pulling the sling back against her body, trying to hide her anxiety and stress. She let the breath out and looked up at the brunette, raw hope painted her face in the prospect of not being thought a freak. 

"Oh my god Emma..." Regina breathed, horror and revulsion layering her features for the way she had been treated. 

Emma's heart shrivelled seeing the abhorrent look Regina had for her. Feeling her deep-seeded sense of grotesqueness confirmed on the brunette's face made a very fragile part of her ego crack painfully and Emma grimaced at the reality of it all, hurrying to tell the rest of her story in hopes she would be able to redeem some of her attractiveness as a friend, if anything, in Regina's eyes. 

"But I didn't eat it for dinner unless I absolutely had to." She rushed in her defence. "I lost a lot of weight in those months from not eating and eventually I worked out a system, where, during the week I was able to scavenge some decent food from school kids or swindle some shop owners I knew from around the place. It took me about a month but I set up rations that I'd hidden around the house and I was eating just like a normal kid again and things were good for a few weeks..."

She said optimistically, looking up at Regina and smiling sheepishly before her features sagged and her eyes unfocused somewhere above Regina's shoulder as she pulled the rest of the memory forward.

"Well, they were until one day when I got home from school and Rob just... grabbed me as soon as I got in the door. He dragged me to the kitchen and tied me to a chair." Emma's face twitched darkly as she recalled it. "During the day he'd found a stash of my food and he went crazy tearing the house apart where he found a bunch more of my hoards... He was furious... I'd never seen him like that before... It scared me... They'd always said that human food would make me sick and that it wasn't meant for my stomach, only for humans... That afternoon, when he was angry, there was fear in his voice as he was screaming at me. He was genuinely afraid I'd get sick and die. I kinda had a moment of epiphany at that, I'll always remember it. When I realised, as a child, for the first time, that they weren't actually mean, they were just nuts. That was the first time when my world had been rocked, you know? I was so sure that people were just good and bad. But seeing him like that, frightened for me eating human food... Something not right in his head, but the emotions were genuine in his care and worry for me... It scared me even more than the anger... There were suddenly new rules to it all, to everything I thought I had figured out..."

Emma took a deep breath and let out a loaded sigh as she stared into the distance.

"... So that afternoon, they tied me to a kitchen chair and put a plate of catfood in front of me, kept telling me I needed to eat before I get sick, putting my stash down the garbage disposal right in front of me. I just, kinda, snapped... And I started meowing at the top of my lungs. They told me to be quiet but I hissed and spat at them and yelled louder. Jessie pushed me over to shut me up, I was still tied to the chair but kept meowing and she totally lost it and kicked the shit out of me. I remember that Rob was yelling something at her in the background of it all, but she grabbed the cat food and scooped it in her hands and, like, shovelled it into my mouth. But I was winded and couldn't breath properly and I started choking on it and I guess I passed out. The next thing I knew I was untied, on my back and Rob had given me CPR..." Emma took a deep shuddering breath and swallowed thickly, her green eyes wide around her faraway look. "I don't remember much else of that evening, but the next day, at school I could barely walk upright and, well, my teacher noticed. She pulled me outside of the classroom, asked me a bunch of questions, lifted my top and found all the bruises on my stomach from Jessie..." Emma swallowed again. "I never went back to the apartment after that and I never saw them again. The cops tried to ask me about it but I just didn't want to revisit it I think and I already didn't really trust cops much from some stuff that had happened a year before. But the teacher relayed a lot of what she'd gotten out of me and I'm pretty sure they cottoned on to Jessie and Rob not being all there. I overheard a few weeks later, in the orphanage, that they both ended up in a mental ward..."

Emma finished, blinking as she returned from the memory, hand still pressing the silk against her nose to block the smell and looked to Regina to see the brunette staring at her with a look of horror across her face, young Emma's chewing and bell hitting the bowl, so loud in the silence. Emma turned her head against the invisible wall to watch her younger self eat.

"That bell... I haven't heard it in so long... And the smell..." She swallowed again. "It just brought back so much at once."

Regina was lost for words. 

"... Emma... I didn't-... That is... ghastly... I don-... I'm so sorry..."

Regina didn't know how on earth to respond to hearing an experience like that, especially coming from her closest friend, so she simply placed her hand on Emma's knee in earnestly. 

The blonde turned her head back to the brunette, offering an embarrassed and hopeful smile. 

"Yea, it was pretty fucked up... When I think about it now... I guess I haven't really given it much thought in years. If I smell catfood, I usually just leave the room and ignore it all. Push it down, you know?"

Regina stared dumbly at Emma, she was shocked. She had thought, with a pang of guilt, that she knew everything about Emma's childhood from what Sidney had dug up on her, but by the sounds of it from other cues that Emma had left since they arrived in this prison, there was a lot more than catfood obsessed foster parents that was missing from her file. Regina had no idea that Emma went through something as horrendous as that and she felt revulsion and anger for the way Emma had been treated as a child begin to bubble uncomfortably in her chest...

Emma removed the silk and scrunched up her nose again at the smell as she turned back to young Emma. 

"I'm so sorry..." Emma whispered to her younger self, tears forming in her eyes at the acknowledgement of how she was machinated at such a young age. "You didn't deserve to be humiliated like that." 

Regina's heart clenched as Emma apologised to her younger self. There was something so significant about such a gesture that she felt a wave of respect for her friend wash over her and she looked at the sheriff with loving attention.

Over by the cement wall, it was as if young-Emma had heard her older self, for her shoulders raised in alert and she swallowed her food audibly. After a few seconds of remaining frozen and vigilant, she shuffled to the side and turned her head slowly to the two women, catfood covering her nose, cheeks and chin. 

"Ugh!" 

Emma immediately pushed away from the invisible wall and threw up, leaning to her other side awkwardly, her good arm reaching across her twisted torso to prop her up shakily as watery vomit hit the cement about half a metre from her hip. 

"What the fuck?!" Emma gasped.

Regina just stared antipathetically as fishy syrup dripped from young-Emma's gaunt face. 

Licking her lips, having consumed the whole bowl, the young girl looked the brunette challengingly in the eyes with rancour. 

Regina could only feel an uncomfortable knot in her stomach that bled such sadness throughout her body for the girl in front of her who had been made to become so hard so early in life that it sent shivers down her back. She felt a strange sense of dissociation around the idea that this child was Emma once upon a time... 

Emma heaved again just as young-Emma turned away and started crawling slowly back to the catflap in the wall. Regina tore her gaze from the derelict young girl to comfort her friend, scrabbling her fingers against the sick woman's neck as she hurried to hold her blonde tresses out of the way. 

"Oh my god." Emma breathed heavily as she spat out the foulness. "You must find me so gross..." 

"I beg your pardon?!" Regina asked suddenly, a hint of indignation seeping into her words. 

Emma, spat the last of the vomit from her mouth and wiped her lips with the back of her hand. "It's okay..." She said, sounding defeated and adding under her breath. "...I think I'm disgusting..." 

Regina was shocked into silence at such a brutally honest confession. 

"In my defence, I never wanted to eat the catfood." She said, exhausted, as she twisted back upright and leant against the wall again. . "I hated it. But I know it still makes me rank..." She looked at Regina for a millisecond before dropping her eyes to her lap, ashamed. 

"Emma you have to be kidding! You can't possibly believe that's what I think of you after hearing what you went through?!" Regina asked incredulously.

"How can I not?" Emma asked quietly, still studying her jeans. 

Regina sucked in a breath in frustration, holding it, not sure how to respond to Emma thinking so little of her that what she took away from Emma's story would be a revulsion for her friend. She let out her breath slowly. 

"I don't understand, Emma. Where is this coming from?" 

"I dunno..." Emma said unconvincingly, sighing heavily and looking over to see the girl crawling into the cat flap sized hole. 

"OH COME ON!" Emma yelled at the room as younger Emma disappeared into the darkness, making Regina jump for the second time at her sudden loudness

The cement closed seemlessly behind the waify child and the pet bowl vanished while Emma continued to scream angrily to the room, turning her head about the ceiling challengingly. 

"WHAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT OF SHOWING US ANY OF THAT?!" 

An unexpected thunderous boom shook their prison, making both women jump as the room suddenly filled with the same blinding light and deafening, high-pitched, piercing tone as when they first arrived. 

The assault continued longer than last time and the pitch had built to be so acute that Regina slammed her eyes closed and covered her ears, folding forward to press her face into Emma's thigh to shield her senses as Emma used her good hand to cover her ear and leant over Regina protectively while pressing her other ear into the brunette's upper back to block the noise. The sound so extreme that both women could feel the other shaking beneathe themselves from the strain. The pressure in their heads so critical that they were both crying out in agony, unheard over the din.  
Then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped, and both of their cries died away as the pain ceased and the assault ended. 

They stayed doubled over each other, breathing heavily as their heads adjusted to normality and the tension in their bodies ebbed slowly away in the aftermath of such intense pain. 

Emma was the first to move, lifting her head dazedly off of Regina's back. She was reaching to soothe the brunette when she noticed blood on the palm of her own hand aswell as in a small patch on Regina's white blouse in the middle of her back where her head had been resting.  
Emma withdrew her hand and lifted it to her ear to feel her fingers dampen as they touched inside, pulling them away, she gasped at the red liquid coating her finger tips.

Regina had felt Emma move and when she heard her gasp, she brought her head up to see Emma's ears and nose were bleeding and the sheriff was staring at her blood covered fingers. 

"Emmaaa..." Regina breathed, reaching towards the blonde's face, worry filling her chest and pouring from her eyes, but her arms froze midway as she noticed blood on her own hands from where they had been covering her ears and she registered a shift of attention and concern in Emma's eyes as she had brought her head up and into the blonde's view. 

The pitch of the noise had been so harsh and formed such intense intracranial pressure that vessels had burst and caused both women to have bled from their sinus tracts, creating a ghastly sight. 

"Regina..." Emma let out and was lifting her hand to wipe blood away from under Regina's nose when she paused, realising her fingers were still covered in her own blood. She looked around them and spotted the tattered piece of Regina's silk blouse crumpled next to her leg, laying dropped and forgotten during the torturous white-out.  
Emma wiped her hand on her jeans before she picked up the silk scrap and brought it under Regina's nose gently. 

Regina let her hands drop to her lap and she tilted her head back, blinking up at the ceiling as she allowed Emma to clean up her bloodied nose. 

"Thank you..." Regina whispered as Emma finished and moved to wipe up her neck from where the blood was trailing from her ear.

As the blonde worked, Regina studied Emma's face, blood tracking from the sheriff's nose and down around one side of her mouth from the way she has been laying her head on her back during the white-out. 

Mmmm." Emma responded simply in welcome, a small smile tilting her lips before they dropped back to neutral as she concentrated on cleaning the brunette's neck, both of them deep in thought

From several small comments that Emma had made, Regina couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to Emma's horrendous upbringing in the foster system that she wasn't telling her. 

She was still so shocked by what Emma had just revealed about her childhood that Regina could only look at the blonde's face intently as if trying to see the rest of her untold years in her features. Being told to wear a bell, crawl on the floor and eat catfood... It seemed so strange a reality, but Regina knew too well that there were very messed up people in the world, who do very messed up things, for very messed up reasons; regardless of which world specifically you were from. The one thing that she kept coming back to was how much she hated the idea that people had hurt Emma. What she was surprised by, was how viscerally protective she now felt of the sheriff. 

Regina continued to watch Emma as she moved onto her other ear, the blonde now biting her lip ever so slightly as she focused on her task. A small fire ignited within Regina in response to such an adorable and yet arousing facial action and she silently relished the attention Emma was giving her. 

Regardless of whatever awful experiences, she had gone through in her life, Emma was still her positive, brave, big hearted and goofy sheriff.  
Regina felt herself filled with something else entirely as she appreciated her friend, something that stemmed from a much more fragile and grateful place. The brunette felt emotion well in her chest and her eyes to tickle with tears for the uncompromising and unconditional compassion and care Emma was giving her. There was something so intimate and nurturing about letting someone wipe blood from her face and clean her up that Regina didn't want Emma to ever stop. 

The blonde was so lost in watching her own movements with the silk that she didn't notice the mayor becoming emotional. Mesmerised by the juxtaposition of colour as the white material ran over the red blood to reveal delicate olive skin, Emma began to chew on her lip lightly as she lost herself in the strangest desire to lick Regina's neck clean; to take the trickle of blood into her mouth as she flattened her tongue and ran it up the mayor's neck, over her flesh.

Emma didn't know where the thought came from and why licking blood off Regina was such an arousing idea. She found herself bothered by such a thought and came crashing back to reality, feeling disgusting and disturbed, hoping to herself that it was just the idea of licking anything off of Regina's soft skin that made her stomach flip and not specifically blood. 

Emma shook her head slightly as she realised Regina's neck had been clean for a while and she dabbed the silk into the brunette's ear to get the last remnants of blood. Regina started at the sudden intrusion into her ear and then shivered and giggled wetly, making Emma apologise and chuckle with her in response only to hear the brunette sob a little through her laughter and she looked up into watery brown eyes.

"Hey... What's up?" Emma asked gently, pulling away, worried and running her hand down Regina's silk covered arm in comfort. 

Regina looked down shyly, which was such an out of character expression for the mayor that Emma couldn't stop her eyebrows from shooting towards her hairline. 

"Nothing. Just... Thank you. For sharing with me that experience you had as a child. For trusting me. For having my back. For being with me in this. For always caring and being gentle with me when I need it... I value it more than it outwardly appears..." 

Regina looked up honestly, smiling in gratitude and took the material delicately from Emma's relaxed hands. 

"May I?" Regina asked, indicating the cloth. Unsure whether Emma would be okay with sharing the bloodied rag, regardless of if their physical bodies were actually there or not, Emma might have been uncomfortable about blood transferral. 

Emma had been a little stunned by Regina's thanks and took a moment to process her question before smiling in both welcome and gratitude.

"Please."

Regina smiled herself and found a dry section of the silk, lifting her free hand to turn the blonde's chin as she brought the cloth to wipe up her neck. 

"I wouldn't know how to be with you any other way." Emma replied to Regina's gratitude. 

"Oh, I know." Regina acknowledged.

Coaxing the blonde's head to face the other way, Regina silently cleaned the opposite ear, all too aware how often her friend's compassion confused her very intimate feelings for the sheriff. Moving to cup the blonde's cheek, shooing away all those romantic thoughts and deciding to enjoy this simple closeness, she brought the cloth under Emma's nose.  
Looking up as she finished, she found green eyes watching her closely and her breath hitched in her throat. 

Emma licked her lips and blinked dolefully at Regina. The mayor let out a shuddering breath, not pulling away and her eyes flicked down to watch the blonde's tongue disappearing back into her mouth.

"Regina, I..." Emma let out in a rush, losing her words and any confidence that the brunette might be feeling something similar as Regina blinked at her in surprise.

Both women's hearts, unbeknownst to the other, had kicked up a beat and Regina was just lifting her free hand with the intention to bravely frame the blonde's face, when both of them tensed and pulled back to look peculiarly at each other. They had both registered a change in balance in their inner ears. 

Not understanding what was happening, it wasn't until the two pools of Emma's vomit began to run toward the far end of the room behind the blonde that Regina realised the room was tilting. 

"We're moving!" 

"What?" Emma asked, still confused.

"The room is tipping!" 

Just as Regina spoke, the weight of gravity against her back and Emma's front became more noticeable and Emma made a noise of surprise in understanding. 

Both women watched with wide eyes as Regina's heels, laying forgotten across the room, began to slide down the length of the concrete floor as the room's rotation reached a thirty degree pitch. 

Subconsciously, both women had been fighting the tilt by simply leaning against the pull as they looked around them, Regina leaning backward and Emma leaning forwards, but as the room rotated past a forty-five degree angle, they began to slide too.  
The reality of their situation hit them both as the shock of what was happening was overridden by their endangered safety and Emma reached towards Regina frantically. 

"Regina! Give me your hand!" Emma panicked, but too late, the gravity forced Emma onto her back as they slid. 

Fear struck Regina as she watched Emma sliding head-first on her back towards the wall, knowing she only had one good arm to protect her head from colliding with the concrete.

"EMMA!" 

Emma had realised this too and used all her energy to force her body sideways where she tumbled, rolling like a log and hit the wall with a pained cry.

Regina, unable to stop her speed, slid quickly behind on her back and lifted her legs above Emma, stopping against the wall (that was quickly becoming the floor) with her feet, but wasn't prepared for the force with which she hit the concrete and crumpled onto the blonde.

Emma jumped into sheriff mode as she registered that the room was continuing to revolve and pushed Regina off her, but just as quickly scrambled to her feet and reached down to pull the mayor up with her good hand. 

"We need to make it to the next corner of the room." She said desperately as the room rotated, pulling Regina along, her temple bleeding into her blonde hair from where she had collided with the wall. 

Dragging Regina behind her as they walked hurriedly across the wall that was now the floor, to where it met the ceiling that was the next wall and soon to be the floor as the room tipped on it's axis again.

The women managed to scramble onto the ceiling easily in comparison to the first tip and were hurrying to cross the incline before it became a decline, when the room levelled and jolted to a stop, a boom sounding throughout. 

Both women stopped and stood panting in the upside down room, the fluorescents shining upwards from the 'floor' and two lines of vomit on the 'ceiling' dripping down in the eerie quiet of the now motionless concrete prison. 

"Well, fuck..." Emma breathed and dropped her good hand to her knee as she doubled over and caught her breath. 

Regina did the same, noticing, now the adrenaline was leaving her body, that there were holes in her stockings and the skin above the bonier parts of her knees and ankles were torn up and bleeding from where she had slid along the concrete. She delicately touched the raw scrapes and hissed at the sting.

Emma looked up at Regina's pained noise and noticed the cuts too. Walking over to the mayor she crouched down to inspect Regina's bloodied knees before looking up at the brunette, eyebrows pulled in with concern. 

"You okay?" Emma asked. 

Regina's heart fluttered at the sight of Emma kneeling in front of her, looking up with compassion. Her mind flashing with neon signs of attention at how close she'd just come to kissing the blonde and ruining their friendship. 

"I believe so..." Regina responded, unsure if adrenaline was still masking other pains. She could still feel her throat bruised and throbbing slightly in the background of her awareness. After so much distraction she'd simply gotten used to the pain and she imagined Emma had too. 

Pulling the blonde to stand up straight, she held onto her arm with one hand and gingerly examined her hairline where her head had hit the concrete, watching the blonde wince as she did so. 

"Your head though... Are you alright? Dizzy?"

"In here I'm always dizzy." The blonde laughed off. 

"It is a bit like that." Regina sighed. "Is your shoulder okay?"

"A little sore, but I'll be okay..." She lifted her hand to delicately touch the skin around the cut on Regina's cheek from Cora. "I'm just glad we weren't injured more seriously." She looked up at the room. "Like what the actual fuck?!"

"I wasn't expecting that, of all things." Regina agreed. 

Regina looked around too, noticing the small rectangle of wall, that had opened upwards as a catflap only minutes earlier, was now at the top of the wall, against the 'ceiling'. It was as if gravity in the now upside-down room was holding the little door of cement open. 

"Emma look!" Regina said quickly, pulling away from the blonde and moving over to the wall, careful to avoid the dripping sick and coming to stand beneath the rectangle open to darkness, peering up at it. 

"Uhuh. No Regina, don't even think about it." Emma said seriously, not moving. 

"Come on Emma this is our best chance to get out of this god forsaken room."

"No way Regina! The room didn't tilt on its own. This was totally a ploy by the Hrïş°mhiëř! Climbing through that hole is obviously what it wants us to do, so let's not yeah?" 

"Whether this was coordinated or not, don't you want to get out of this room?"  
Regina looked at the two pools of vomit dripping from the ceiling pointedly. "Please help me up there?" 

"Regina, last time we left this place, I had my arm dislocated, you were cut and we were both strangled into unconciousness... I really don't think leaving is a good idea."

"Emma, in here, you almost broke your nose, you threw up from distress twice, we both bled from our ears, I cut up my knees and I watched you almost brain yourself sliding head first into the wall as the room legitimately turned upside down!" 

"By that argument, we are totally much safer in here! Three of those five only 'almost' happened." 

Regina gave Emma a look. 

"My point is that nowhere is 'safer' Emma. We don't know how the Hrïş°mhiëř works, we don't know if it can even see us or this room." Regina said matter-of-factly. "We don't know if it is watching and orchestrating every step or if we are simply abandoned in a prison that is set to respond to our consciousnesses and traumas with messed up recreations for eternity. We don't even know if it is aware that you are here with me. We have no way of knowing." Regina glanced up at the hole before continuing. "But what we do know is that we still have free will and we can still move about and make decisions freely in this 'unreality'. If we choose to stay here because it's safer...? Well then, I feel we may as well resign ourselves to death. We are still alive Emma! Lets keep employing what little autonomy and agency we have left."

As Regina stood blinking at her like she was dapht not to see sense, Emma just sighed. 

"I get it. I really do Regina. It's just that..." 

"Just what?!" Regina asked impatiently. 

"I thought i watched you die Regina..." She replied softly. 

The brunette was shocked into silence by the painful honesty in Emma's voice.

"I thought I was watching you die in your office back in Storybrooke and I thought I was watching you die when your mother strangled you into unconsciousness. I'm frightened for you Regina. I don't just not want you to die, but I don't want you to get hurt or be in pain or go through an awful experience again... It hurts me every time I see you hurt..."

Regina softened, walking back to blonde who was looking so vulnerable and worried. 

"I'm sorry Emma, I didn't realise..."

"Both those times I was so utterly powerless, all I could was watch in horror as they hurt you. I can't protect you Regina and that makes me fucking terrified..." 

Emma's voice cracked as Regina reached her and wrapped her arms around the blonde, simply hugging her tight for the longest time before she spoke gently. 

"To be honest Emma, you're right, you can't protect me in here, just like I can't protect you." Regina spoke earnestly as she held her distressed friend. "If the Hrïş°mhiëř or this prison or however it works actually wanted something to happen to us, there is nothing we could do to stop it. We could try to change it or try to fight it, which I think is part of the torture; giving us a small amount of self-government. It's cruel. But we are very much at the mercy of this place until we can start to understand how it works." Regina pulled back and looked Emma in her worried green eyes. "But I'm so grateful you're here Emma. You are here with me in this and that is something the Hrïş°mhiëř wasn't expecting when it came for me. Whatever experiences come, they will come and they may suck completely and hurt like nothing has hurt before, but I will face them and continue looking for a way out because I'm not alone in this. We're not alone. And now I have a bigger drive to get out of here, one that I wouldn't have had if you hadn't spear tackled that thing; because now I need to get you out of here too. You've always made me stronger Emma and as long as you stay with me and support me through the coming trials as I will do for you; I know we are going to be okay and we will get out of here."

Emma took a deep breath as Regina finished strongly, her heart fluttering with hearing how much her presence meant to the brunette, but anxiety twisting her gut into knots with all of Regina's admissions of helplessness. 

She knew after a speech like that that she wasn't going to convince the brunette to stay put, so she pushed her fears down and sighed heavily. 

"Okay." 

"Okay?" 

"I'm with you." 

"You're with me?" 

"Regina, stop repeating me and let's climb through this fucking hole in the wall before I change my mind." 

Regina opened and closed her mouth a few times, expecting to have needed to argue a lot more with the blonde for her to agree to hoist her into a hole of darkness. 

"Thank you." She said simply, moving over to the wall and taking Emma's advice not to question it. 

"Okay..." Emma said, lining herself up under the hole. "As soon as you get to the other side find something to throw through and help pull me up. If there is nothing, we'll use my jacket. Yeah?" 

"Agreed." Regina replied.

Emma stood sideways to the hole, her good shoulder against the cement wall and her right foot out in front of her in a lunge. 

"Stand on my knee and then give me your left foot." 

Regina put a stockinged foot on Emma's knee and pushed off the ground, balancing herself against the wall as she lifted her left foot to rest in Emma's hand as she gripped the edge of the cement hole above her.

"Ready?" Emma asked. 

"Ready." Regina confirmed and pushed off Emma's knee at the same time that she pulled up with her arms, while the blonde took the brunette's weight in her left hand and placed it on her good shoulder and stood up straight; allowing Regina to rest her stomach on the lip of the hole and lean into the darkness beyond. 

 

"What can you see?" Emma asked, looking up and immediately looking level again, her stomach lurching with arousal and shame as she had forgotten Regina was wearing a skirt and now had the image of Regina's painfully endowed ass from a very intimate angle emblazoned into her brain. 

"Nothing." Regina's called, bringing Emma back to the present, the brunette's voice sounding oddly hollow from inside the hole. "It's simply all black."

"Well maybe it's not such a good idea to go in there after all..." Emma called up to the brunette, not lifting her head to respect the mayor's privacy, anxiety washing over the blonde at the prospect of Regina falling into darkness. 

"Oh!" Regina let out and Emma felt her weight lift off her shoulders for a second before returning. 

"You okay? What happened?" 

"It's the wall. It's as if the it isn't here at all, only the hole."

Emma had no idea what Regina meant, but her anxieties were screaming at her for them to take a step back and revisit this idea from the safety of the fluoro-lit prison floor. 

"Regina, how about you come down and we try something else." She called to mayor. 

"Hold on I think I can grab this... Yes!" 

Emma felt the weight leave her shoulder again and frantically looked up to see Regina's feet disappearing into the hole. 

"Regina!" 

"... Regina can you hear me? Are you okay?" Emma felt her heart thumping in her throat as no reply came. 

"REGINAAAA!" 

Staring up at the hole helplessly, Emma felt panic descend over her body, turning her skin cold. 

"FUUUUCK!" 

Emma kicked the wall, utterly bewilded and furious with herself for being such a pushover and so quick to please that she didn't think to think through how she would get up there without Regina. 

Emma stood on her tiptoes and reached up to the hole, her fingers only just curling over the edge. 

Taking a step back and jumping up at the wall, she managed to catch the ledge and began to pull herself up, only to drop back down scraping her knees on the cement as her left arm gave out, not strong enough to pull all of her weight up on its own. 

Cursing again, the irony of Regina's speech about being stronger together all too clear to the blonde as she lifted the jacket-sling off her shoulder and stretched out her aching arm. 

Dropping the leather jacket to the floor, Emma moved her arm about in exercises as she paced below the wall. 

"I SWEAR TO GOD REGINA! IF THIS IS YOU MESSING WITH ME, I'M ABOUT TO GO THROUGH A LOT OF PAIN TO GET TO YOU!...?" 

As still no response came, Emma stood against the wall and with a little hop, caught the ledge with both hands. Letting her weight fall in her aching shoulder, she cried out in pain and immediately dropped to the floor again.

It was painful, but her muscles were working and that was all she needed. Taking several steps back, Emma closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Opening them again, she ran at the wall and kicked up it to grab the ledge and pulling herself up with both arms, scrabbling her boots against the wall, she managed to wriggle her torso into the hole and rest her stomach on the lip. 

Her shoulder searing from the strain, she peered about in the pitch black nothingness, unsure of what lay in the dark

"Regina?" She asked timidly. 

"REGINA!" She yelled out, her voice echoing eerily in the darkness. 

Still unsure what to do when there came no response, she reached below the lip of cement her stomach was resting on, and felt her heart jump in her throat as her hand went straight through the wall to where her legs should have been on the other side. 

Almost toppling in, she gripped the ledge in the prison frantically, understanding now what Regina was saying about the wall not being there. 

Balancing herself more carefully, she brought her hand inside the hole to where the wall should be, experiencing the weirdest sensation as her hand dove into darkness and also went through where her legs and stomach should have been. 

Bringing her hand under and over to the inside of the lip that she was resting on in the concrete room, she felt the ledge, but on the dark hole side, her stomach wasn't there and she had the whole of empty ledge to grip on to.

Her head hurting, trying to process the physics of such a thing, she gave away trying to understand and simply thought: 'Well, if Regina came through here, I go through here.' 

She secured her grip in the inner ledge and slowly lent forward, ducking her head to her chest and gently rolling over the lip and engaging her abdominals and keep her legs tucked in as she let her body drop through to hang in the darkness. 

Emma turned her head around, surrounded by pitch black, seemingly holding into nothing as no fluorescent prison light eminated from the hole she that she had just swung through above her...

Her shoulder screamed angrily at her for it to stop holding her weight, and hanging on painfully during one final pang of anxiety, she let go.

Emma's heart shot into her mouth as she free fell for a few seconds before her feet hit solid ground and she tucked and rolled, finishing in a crouching position on a patch of moonlit stone floor.


	7. UnStable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma follows after the mayor, determined to follow through with her self-declared purpose in this fresh hell; protect Regina.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for forcible restraint, murder, animal torture, graphic animal pain and animal death.
> 
> Also the emotional fallout of all that.

Emma's heart shot into her mouth as she free fell for a few seconds before her feet hit solid ground and she tucked and rolled, finishing in a crouching position on a patch of moonlit stone floor.

Emma stayed in a crouch as her eyes adjusted to the moonlit darkness, her heart jack-hammering inside her chest and her shoulder screaming at her. 

"Reginahhh?" Emma whispered nervously into the shadows, ignoring t pain. 

Emma felt her heart kick out of time from its thudding when no response came. The prospect of Regina and her being seperated flooded her with fear. She hated the idea that Regina was alone somewhere in this madness. But, with nothing to do with the fear that she felt, Emma told herself that it wasn't needed in this moment and she pushed it aside to set her intention: 

Finding the brunette as quickly as possible. 

As Emma looked around the gloom she felt a shiver run through her as she thought about how, only moments before, she'd been hanging in pitch black nothingness and peering into the bottomless darkness. Now, crouched on the stones as her eyes finally adjusted, she found herself, unnervingly, in what looked like a horse stall. 

The stone wall in front of her held a barred half-circle window with a glorious full moon to be seen sitting high in the sky outside.  
Glowing brilliantly, its beams filtered through the bars and highlighted the sticks of straw littering the cobblestones. An empty trough and an untouched bail of hay in the corner to her left indicated that her stall was usually unoccupied.

Goosebumps rose along her arms as she looked above her and saw no catflap sized hole in the straw-thatch roof through which she could have fallen. 

The fact that there was no direct way back to their concrete room sent anxiety to scuttle through her chest and up her throat. Emma took a moment to process the irony that not being able to find her way back to their prison caused her fear.  
She figured that the fluorescent lit room represented the 'known' and an accustomed space to her, and that her instincts were simply telling her that being able to return to familiar ground was, somehow, safer. But regardless of this mindfulness, she still felt silly and dismayed for wanting to have a way back.  
Emma shooed her thoughts away from dwelling on it to the point it caused her head to hurt with the concious existentialism of it all and swallowed nervously. 

Swivelling on the floor to look behind her, she eyed the timber stall gate before standing up and approaching it quietly. Leaning over the top of the wooden frame, Emma peered out into the desolate stable, the large area dark and eerie with only the white glow from the moon outside casting long highlighted shadows against the hay strewn stone floor. 

"Regina?" Emma whispered into the gloom, her voice a little louder this time. When again no response came, she unlatched the stall gate as silently as possible and stepped out.

It was a cool night and she felt her skin shiver. Missing her jacket and wishing she'd brought it with her through the catflap, she crept to the stable next to hers and looked in. 

Empty.

Emma wondered oddly as she moved on why she was trying to stay quiet when there was no proof that this non-existent place actually reacted to any physical noise she made as opposed to it's inhabitants simply registering that her conciousness was in the vicinity or, by that matter, why she shivered in a cold that wasn't really there...

She felt her skin crawl to an uncomfortable level of sensation and despair that was unrelated to the chilly temperature, when a horse whinnied so abruptly and so loudly in the stall directly opposite her that Emma shot out of her skin in fright.

Her heart had catapulted into her mouth and she'd physically jumped into the air at the sudden high-pitched neigh, but she froze immediately as she heard gentle laughter follow and carry out from the stall. 

Regina's laughter. 

Emma swallowed, pushing her heart down from its fright to sit justled amongst the hope flittering in her chest as she walked quietly over to the stall. She poked her head over the top of the gate and felt her whole body relax. 

A beautiful chestnut colt with a striking white bald down his face lay kneeling amongst the hay, and sitting, facing the stunning horse, gently stroking his cheek and talking quietly to him through tears; sat Regina. 

Emma felt her heart flutter as she watched Regina. She'd never really seen the brunette interacting with an animal before and there was something so beautifully majestic about it that had Emma transfixed. The way her delicate fingers brushed against his coat as her hands swivelled to cup his jaw and scratch gently under his chin, her brown hair hanging off one shoulder as she tilted her head to look into his eyes while she spoke quietly to him... It was truly breathtaking for Emma, but there was also a sadness in the way Regina was giving her attention to the creature that made Emma's heart weigh heavy in her chest. The tears shining on the mayor's face seemed to hold so much pain and the way she ran her hands intimately over the horse's white forehead, around his muzzle and under his chin seemed almost reverent and apologetic. 

"-how much I miss you. It hurts beyond a physical pain... What I did... I... I'm..."

Emma realised quickly that Regina was having a very meaningful and private moment with the horse and might not have wanted her to overhear so she gently cleared her throat.

Regina jerked violently at the sudden noise, her head springing up, causing the horse to huff and jerk his head in response to the brunette's sudden movement. 

"Emma!" Regina said holding a hand to her heart as it thumped in her chest with fright, before her face softened and she repeated her name with a warm smile, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

"Emma."

"Hey." Emma said gently, smiling back at her friend. 

"You found us! I'm sorry I didn't wait for you. I... I recognised..." 

Regina broke off sadly as she looked back down at her equine companion. She became lost in his eyes for a moment and stroked his cheek absently before she seemed to come back to herself and with a start flicked her head back to Emma in apology.

"Come in! Ugh, where are my manners?! There is someone I'd like you to meet." She grinned up at Emma. 

Emma, smiling like a fool and feeling giddy with relief that Regina was okay, was intrigued by this new side to the mayor and quietly opened the gate, entering the stall. 

"Emma, this is Rocinante." Regina said softly through watery eyes, holding her hand out to the blonde. 

Emma stepped forward and gently took Regina's hand, surreptitiously enjoying the elation that the brunette's delicate fingers against her own caused her, allowing herself to be pulled slowly to the floor. Still holding Emma's fingers, Regina guided her hand to touch between Rocinante's eyes, flattening her own over the top before stroking off Emma's and continuing up between his ears, laughing wetly with happiness at the meeting. 

"Pleased to meet you Rocinante." Emma said softly to the horse as he blinked vulnerably up at her from enormous dark eyes. The warmth and texture of his forehead beneath her fingers felt so calming and grounding after just having Regina's hand stroke her own which had sent her heart fluttering. 

"Isn't he handsome?" Regina asked with a smile, unable to look away from his closest all-seeing orb of an eye. The pride in her voice clear, however muddied with emotion. 

Emma nodded, slowly stroking her hand down over his muzzle in awe and sat back on her knees, looking at Regina with a peculiar feeling in her chest. She'd never heard the brunette talk of anything or anyone with such adoration other than Henry, and Emma realised she loved hearing it.  
There was a reverent relationship between animal and human here that Emma had never experienced for herself and also a sacredness that she felt quite honoured to witness. 

"He's stunning Regina." Emma said with emphasis, smiling at the brunette, aware that there was a significant connection that meant a lot to her. 

"Was he yours?" Emma winced as she spoke, worried for a moment if her slip of past tense would upset Regina. 

"... He was. But he wasn't a pet." Regina said softly. "He was a companion. I couldn't have ever owned him..." 

Emma nodded in respectful understanding. 

"There's a similarity between you two. Both a little intimidating in your beauty and majesty, but ultimately captivating..." Emma felt her body flood cold as she realised her musing had just called Regina captivating, and she continued on awkwardly, hoping to move on quickly. "He's so gentle, I've not had much to do with horses... But he's so placid and somehow seems... wise? How old is he?" 

Regina felt for a moment the thrill of Emma calling her beautiful before she was overwhelmed by the pain in her heart for how she had treated Rocinante and she looked down at her chestnut beauty, beginning to cry.

"Hey..." Emma said softly, noticing that her friend's tears were no longer laden with joy. "You okay?" 

Regina let out a breath and her tears flowed faster as she tried to give words to all that what was going on within her. 

"He is- he was... my best friend. For so many years. So many! He was with me through it all and I... And I..." Regina shook her head in despair as her tears overcame her and her voice caught.

Emma didn't know what Regina was going to say, but she didn't want her to think that she needed to share if she wasn't ready to or didn't have the words or even if it was simply to allow her the time to cry before she felt the need to explain. So leaning forward, the blonde put a hand gently on Rocinante's cheek, stroking softly and one hand comfortingly on Regina's knee, smiling kindly at the brunette. 

Regina's eyes flittered up to Emma's own and seeing the space and patience in them, she placed her own hand on top of the blonde's and sobbed in gratitude. Brown stared into green, their gaze holding long enough for both women to begin to think about the other beyond the present moment, when their attention was drawn quickly back to the room as Rocinante let out a pained snort and his ears folded back on the poll of his head, his whole body going stiff.

"Ro?!" Regina gasped.

Rocinante's eyes were squinting and Emma could see veins protruding angrily around the bridge of his nose as he remained tense. 

"Ro?!" Regina worried again, her voice anxious. 

Rocinante gave a gutteral snort followed by an awful cry, tossing his head, his jaw catching Regina's arm, making her pull back sharply just as he kicked his legs out with such power that if Emma had been a foot to the left she would have been sent flying with broken ribs. 

"Wauhh!" Emma let out in surprise, scrambling out of his hooves' reach as Regina reached for his head, holding him and trying to still his spasms, stroking his jaw and making soft sooshing noises while he made alarming sounds. 

"Shhhhhh my Ro... What's wrong?"

He tossed his head in Regina's arms, snorting, nostrils flaring. 

"What's going on?" Emma asked nervously as she circled around to stand a little behind Regina. 

"I don't know!" Regina replied frantically, fear evident in her voice. "He's in pain, but I don't understand how... We were just sitting here... He was fine!" 

Emma had a peculiar momemt as her awareness of their mind-fuck of a prison was suddenly dumped over her like cold water and she realised that Rocinante going from dulcet and loving to frightened and in pain was no fluke. That what was about to happen was most likely meant to hurt Regina. Placing her hand gently on her friend's shoulder, Emma tried to warn the brunette but had no idea how to say 'this isn't really happening' in a sensitive enough way and Regina was so completely consumed by Rocinante's distress that she didn't seem to even notice Emma's touch.

"Regina..." Emma faltered. 

The level of pain that Rocinante was experiencing seemed to increase and he kicked out again, flinging his head back with such force that Regina, who was hugging his face desperately, recieved a painful bash under her chin and was pushed onto her back amongst the straw. 

"Regina!" Emma let out as the brunette sprawled on the ground next to her feet. 

Emma leant down in a rush, helping the stunned mayor to her feet and pulling her out of harms way towards the gate, before resting her hands on the brunette's silk covered upper arms and looked her in the face. 

"Are you okay?!" She asked breathlessly, peering into Regina's eyes to check for any sign of concussion from such a heavy impact. 

Regina didn't respond. Couldn't respond. She only stilled, horror-struck within Emma's arms as she looked towards her childhood companion who had fallen down on his side and began writhing in the straw in pain. Regina's features widened in sudden abomination and Emma turned to see a deep red glow emanating from within Rocinante's breast.  
Understanding dropped dispairingly into Emma's stomach as both women watched the horse's large heart emerge from inside his chest and sit floating magically outside of his body, pulsing with such rosen luminosity.  
The glowing muscle seemed to constrict mid-air from an unseen force and Rocinante screamed in agony, the veins on his face straining beneath his wide and terrified eyes. 

"ROCINANTE!" Regina screamed, lunging from within Emma's arms towards her suffering friend. Emma lurched forwards, hurriedly grabbing at the brunette and managing to whirl her to the side just as Rocinante thrashed violently and his hoof, instead of colliding with Regina's abdomen, hit Emma's thigh as she swung the mayor away. 

Emma cried out painfully as his horseshoe made contact but as soon as they had steadied from the whirling movement, Regina had tried to rush to her horse again and Emma had to desperately cling to her to keep her from injuring herself. 

"Emma! Let me go!" Regina cried, tears falling down her face hard and heavy as she fought hysterically against the blonde's grip. "Please! Let me be with him! He's... He's..." 

It was all happening too intensely for Emma: t  
The pain in her thigh sending jolts up her spine and leaving a thudding in her temple. Regina's throes further agrivating her new injury as well as punishing her aching shoulder socket. Rocinante making such horrific shrieking noises of pain that she wasn't even aware horses were able to make; a mixture of snorting, pig squeals and what sounded oddly like metal crunching. His heart being crushed in front of their very eyes. All of this sensory input combined with Regina's frenzy and torment, made Emma's own heart break in distress for Rocinante and this woman who she swore to herself that she would protect... 

It was too much. 

Her head swam and Emma felt a sheen of sweat chill on her skin as she heard a rushing noise in her ears. There was a fog threatening to overwhelm her when Rocinante went silent, his whole body tensing and he released a single grunt. Regina stilled in Emma's clutches with a gasp of breath and they both watched as his heart cracked audibly, a fissure running diagonally around the outside of it, the glow dying from within the muscle at the same time as the light ebbed from his eyes and his whole body fell lifeless, his heart crumbling to ash and dusting to the floor. 

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGHHHHHHH!!!" 

Regina screamed viscerally, tears gushing down her devastated face, leaning all her weight against Emma's arms as she doubled over in grief. The blonde stood rooted upright, holding Regina up with adrenaline and shock. 

"NOOOOOOOOHOOHOOO.... ROCINANTE! NOOOO!" 

Regina fought and strained in Emma's embrace before letting her body fall limp in desolation. The blonde registered somewhere at the back of her mind that the danger was gone and she numbly released the brunette to the floor. Regina immediately scrambled up and moved over to her chestnut horse where she lifted his head heavily into her lap. The brunette wept with a fresh wave of grief and she leant over Rocinante's strikingly blazen face, dropping her forehead to rest on his brow as her tears fell into his white hair.

Emma blinked dinstantly, trying to pull herself to return to immediacy. 

"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry... I'm so so sorry..." 

Emma was brought back to the room by the brunette's heartbreaking mantra. Blinking again, she looked down at Regina sitting awkwardly with her legs to the side while she cradled her dead horse's head, face pressed against his as she cried. Emma immediately limped over, barely concious of the pain in her thigh as she dropped to the floor and tucked herself next to the mayor, wrapping an arm around the defeated brunette so she could sit with support. 

Regina allowed her weight to fall against Emma and was grateful for her to lean on as she was beginning to shake from the strain of holding Rocinante in such a position.  
Emma's mindfulness and thoughtfulness for what she needed, coupled with her awareness that she was struggling to hold her childhood horse's dead weight hit Regina so fully that she wretchedly sobbed into Rociante's forehead as another tide of grief overwhelmed her. 

Emma softly stroked Rocinante's cheek with the hand that wasn't clutched around Regina, trying to think of how to comfort her, how to begin to find the right words. She was painfully aware that this wasn't real, but Regina had experienced this before in some sense and she was experiencing the horror and sadness of it all right now just the same. 

"I'm so sorry Regina." Emma tried awkwardly as she stroked Rocinante, his eyes open and glazed, empty of life... "I'm so sorry this thing that has us, made you experience that..."

"Do not be sorry for me!" She snarled, pulling away from Emma.

The sudden flash of anger in Regina's eyes, the venom in her voice, it was so quick a change in demeanour that it startled Emma to see the Evil Queen glaring at her. "I do not deserve your pity. The Hrïş°mhiëř didn't do this to him..." 

Regina sobbed, letting her shoulders fall as the anger and the Queen disappeared just as quickly as it had ignited and she looked sideways at Emma with such guilt that it soon forced the brunette's head to drop in despair. "... I did!" 

"Wh- What?" 

Emma was... confused. She had just experienced a very distressed Regina fighting frantically against her to get to her dying companion and Emma couldn't comprehend a scenario where Regina would have anything to do with what Rocinante had just suffered... 

"I... I tore out his heart when I was the Queen!" Regina sobbed the word queen as her emotions took over her again. "I murdered him!"

"Wha-" 

Emma wasn't sure if what Regina was saying was meant literally or it was an exaggeration and began to ask the mayor but she stopped herself and fell silent upon seeing the pain and self hatred on Regina's face.

"Regina... Why...?!" Emma whispered in disbelief. 

Regina turned to look at Emma, her features full of nausea, disgust and shame, tears still falling from her eyes. 

"I was in so much pain, Emma. I was so full of hate. It was during your mother's reign and the end of our time in the Enchanted Forest... One of the ingredients in the Dark Curse that sent us all to Storybrook called for the hea-..." Regina's voice cracked with emotion. "...the heart of the thing I loved the most..."

Emma simply stared at the brunette, dumbfounded as Regina's face streamed with tears. 

"I reached my hand into his chest and I... I..."

Her words caught in her throat again and she shook her head, opening her mouth a few times as she tried to find the strength and courage to admit her perversity. 

"I murdered him!" She sobbed, fresh tears flowing from her eyes as she looked down at his head in her lap and her breath caught wretchedly. Leaning back over him, she wailed into his cheek. "I'm so sorry Ro! I'm so so sorry!" She buried her streaming face into his hair and gasped for breath through her tears. "Come back to me. Let me explain. If I could, I'd bring you back. I'd take it back. I'd take so much back..." 

Emma sat in shock once again, staring down at Regina as she sobbed into Rocinante. There was genuine remorse and regret in her voice and Emma found it hard to process the woman now being the woman then and doing something so destructive and cruel. 

"Regina, it's okay. You-" 

"It is not okay, Emma! I k-" 

"Yes it is." Emma cut across her. "You are not the person you were when you made those choices."

"I showed him such disrespect! For all the years of friendship and loyalty and love. All that he gave to me and I just took what I wanted from him." Regina's words became thick as her tears renewed again. "I threw all of him away, so quickly and so cruelly... I was so selfish! I killed him for petty rev-" 

"Regina stop!" Emma cut across her. "Don't do this to yourself. Please... You are not the person you were then. Be kind to yourself in this."

But Regina looked down at Rocinante's dead eyes and abhorrence blanched across her face as the reality of what she'd done all those years ago had finally been verbalised.

It was now the brunette's turn to feel nauseas and she brought the back of her hand to her nose, swallowing with difficulty, her eyes fluttering closed as she felt her stomach threatening to evacuate.  
Shuffling out from under the weight of Rocinante's head, silently grateful as Emma lifted his weight for her while she scuffled backwards for some space to breathe. She held her stomach as a brief flash of her father came snapping into her thoughts that she immediately clamped closed and locked in a very black depth of her mind. 

"Hey, you okay?" Emma asked, concerned as she lowered Rocinante's head gently to the hay strewn floor. 

"I just... I can't... I... He..." Regina tried, her eyes still closed as she held her other hand to her nose, shaking her head as if trying to shake the truth from reality. 

"Hey, it's okay..." Emma soothed as she scooted over to sit in front of Regina, noting absently the painful throbbing of protest her thigh made at the movement before putting her hands on the brunette's arms for support. 

"It's not okay Emma! Will you stop saying that what I did is o-" 

"It is o-kay." Emma cut across her again, louder and deliberate this time. "You are forgiven." 

Regina's eyes fluttered open at Emma's words and she looked directly at the blonde, a desperate hope laying deep within her chocolate eyes. 

"You're forgiven for this. He forgives you. Ofcourse he forgives you. He forgave you the moment it happened. He loves you and he knows you love him. He seperated what happened to him from who you are the second your hand touched his heart. He knows what you feel like in his heart. Who you were when his life was traded, that didn't feel like you. You were grieving the loss of so much Regina and when the pain is unbearable you do what you can to survive... He didn't associate that one action with who he had always known, with the love he had always known. He has always forgiven you..."

Regina blinked disbelievingly at her, her eyes searching Emma's for something, maybe dishonesty or manipulation, or maybe truth or encouragement. 

As Emma stared back in earnest, she wondered if what she had said was enough for Regina to begin to forgive the actions of a hurt woman, when a call echoed through the stables, breaking through their intimacy. 

"REGINAAAA?!"

Almost as if in slow motion, Emma saw the journey on Regina's face as the male cry took her through a series of extreme emotions, all within a single second. 

The brunette's features moved from staring so intensely at Emma with teeth biting the inside of her lip and eyebrows pulled in desperately, the hope for forgiveness so devastatingly clear, to sudden alarm as her eyebrows shot up and her head whipped in the direction of the call so fast that it made Emma's neck hurt in sympathy. Recognition came next as her brown orbs widened, her lips parting in an 'O', followed by an immediate joy that flickered over her face. Her lips closed and tilted up in the corners with a twitch of a disbelieving smile. Relief and love sparking in the depth of her eyes before her features crumpled and an unfathomable heartache threatened to burst from every line on her face. 

"Oh my god..." Regina breathed out painfully. 

Emma could only let her own mouth drop open in understanding for who they were about to encounter and all the context that came with that. 

"REGINAAAAAA!"

 

"... Daniel..." Regina whispered in disbelief, her eyes burrowing sorrow through the stall gate and into the stables beyond. 

Emma's heart twisted for the emotions displayed on the brunette's face. Hope, fear, love and agony all at once. 

Regina felt her heart ache with the cruelty of it all, her mind and body warring. Her body's immediate instinct was screaming at her to fly to Daniel and wrap herself in his arms. To have his warmth and smell and gentle words wash over her with all the love and safety that he had always given her. She had missed him so much... So incredibly much in the thirty plus years that she had been without him.  
But her mind was throwing up alarms that her Daniel was dead, regardless of how much she just wanted to hold him, smell him, hear him, look at him, be with him, be loved by him. This would be the Daniel from her memories, from her conciousness, and he would be engineered by the Hrïş°mhiëř, which was a stomach dropping and terrifying thought. 

Daniels voice sounded again, a little closer this time, his tone wavering as he called, clearly strained with fear and worry.

"REGINA?! WHERE ARE YOU? PLEASE JUST TELL ME YOU'RE ALRIGHT..." 

"Oh my god..." Regina repeated in a whisper, leaning forward and bringing her hand up to clutch at her chest, her heart pleading with her to go to him, fresh tears springing in her eyes. 

"Regina..." Emma whispered out of compassion, utterly lost for knowing what more to say. 

Seeing all the emotion and conflict so clearly on Regina's ever painfully open features had always been the thing that encapsulated the blonde's attention most and seeing it now at its most extreme, Emma felt the only thing to do was to convey her support. She rested her hand on Regina's. 

"Go to him." 

Regina inhaled at Emma's encouragement and blinked at her in confusion. It had been the last thing she expected.  
The two women had spent the most time together over the last few... days? than they ever had, and in so many ways; the most intimate time too. Regina was beginning to finally listen to the feelings she had for Emma and the warmth their closeness brought her. She had even allowed herself to indulge in a fantasy of straddling Emma and kissing her as she rolled her hips into the blonde's abdomen, all while she was actually face to face with her.  
There had been incident after incident since being imprisoned when Regina had taken moments to look at Emma, really look at her. She'd found herself thinking about how emotionally intelligent, funny, brave, selfless, attractive or compassionate she was. She had begun to feel that there was a possibility that Emma reciprocated her feelings of something more than platonic appreciation. But to be told to go to her former love was a very painful, also very mature, yet very confusing suggestion for her feelings. 

Emma caught the inner tormoil on Regina's face and wondered briefly if it had anything to do with their closeness since they had been taken. The idea of Regina in another's arms made her uneasy and sad in ways she wouldn't allow herself to process in this moment. But even if, by some miraculous circumstance, Regina was beginning to feel something beyond friendship for her, Emma knew that this current experience with Daniel wasn't about her at all and she couldn't live with herself for being selfish when she knew there were unresolved emotions for the brunette surrounding his death. So, her heart aching, she encouraged the brunette again. 

"Regina it's okay. Go to him. You wanted to explore this... Whatever." Emma said openly, gesturing around at their perceived surroundings. "This may be an incredible opportunity to bring you answers and maybe even some form of previously inconceivable closure or solace. It's going to be okay, I'm right here. I'll be here the whole time. You have my support, always. Honestly Regina, go to him." 

Regina looked into Emma's honest face, her head tilting as if searching to find some hidden answer in the blonde's green eyes. But eventually, as if resigning herself to the fact that she would see nothing, she let out a breath and nodded once at Emma before standing up and offering her hand to the sheriff. 

Emma looked at Regina's bare stockinged feet in front of her, thinking how adorable they were with a smirk before she looked up at the brunette and took her hand. 

Emma started to get up, bringing her leg up to push off of the ground when an angry bolt of pain shot through her thigh and she let out a cry, dropping back to the floor, her hand ripping from Regina's grasp.

"Wha-! Emma, are you alright? Your shoulder?" Regina asked after stumbling unexpectedly from the loss of weight, a little confused. 

Emma looked up Regina apologetically.

"Yea, just my damn leg." She replied frustratingly, looking down at her thigh and wincing as she gingerly touched the side of it. "Rocinante got me with his hoof when I grabbed you away." 

"Oh my god, Emma..." Regina breathed, crouching down. "I'm sorry, I didn't even notice that happening. That can break bones! Are you alright?"

"I think I was lucky. It hurts, but I think it's just bruised and sore." She looked up at Regina with determination and said deliberately. "Help me up?" 

"Emma... We should really take a look at your thigh..." Regina said, seriously concerned. 

"Nah, it's fine. Help me up?"

"Are you sure?" Regina said quietly, worrying that her friend was being to obstinate for her own good. 

"Mhmhmm." Emma grunted dismissively, flapping her hands to Regina for her to help her up. 

Regina quirked an eyebrow and smirked at her strong-headed friend before standing up and bending down to help Emma up with a more controlled stance. 

Once they were upright, Regina kept a hand on Emma's shoulder, unconvinced that she wasn't going to topple over. 

"You're certain you're alright Emma?"

"Yeh." Emma blew out a breath. "I'm okay, just a bit beaten up." She chuckled. 

Regina lifted the corner of her mouth in mock humour for how accurate her turn of phrase was. 

"REGIIINAAAAAA?!"

Both women jumped a little as Daniel's yell tolled through the stables and Emma turned to Regina with a gentle smile.

"Go on." She reassured, nodding to the gate. 

Regina took in a breath, looked to the gate with confliction, looked at Emma, looked down at her thigh, looked back up at Emma, searched her face for dire injury, smiled tentatively, squeezed her shoulder gently, looked down at Rocinante, closed her eyes immediately, let out her breath, sadness washing over her face, turned back to the stables, opened her eyes, took in a shakier breath, and walked towards the gate.

Watching Regina go, Emma was tracking everything they'd experienced in this prison, every challenge they'd been dealt and the blows they both suffered. The blonde felt her chest knotting horrendously for everything that Regina was reliving when suddenly she jumped as she felt her back pressing against the wall. She had a split second of disorientation as she could have sworn that she was standing at least a metre away from the wall, rationalising that it was just closer than she'd thought and that she'd merely had a dizy spell and swayed into it. But it continued to push against her and she stepped away to turn and see that the wall was indeed over a metre away. Utterly bewilded, it wasn't until she felt something press on the tips of her boots and raising her hands she realised with a start that an invisible wall was backing her towards the stall gate. 

"Urm..." Emma let out as she was pushed backwards, turning her head to see Regina stepping out into the stables. 

"Regina, I think we may have a problem." Emma said nervously, stumbling a little as the invisible wall kept moving.

"Regina?" Emma asked as she was backed out of the stall where the force came to a stop and she turned to look at the brunette. 

Regina gave no indication of hearing Emma as she peered anxiously down the stable run. 

"Regina?!" Emma repeated, stepping towards Regina and hitting another wall. 

"Ah-!...? Regina! Shit..." Emma started to panic as she felt her way around the invisible, metre-square prism that she now found herself in. 

"FUCK!! REGINA!" Emma yelled uselessly at the mayor, banging on the walls of her prism as her heart thumped outrageously in her chest. 

Regina, standing only a few feet from where Emma was imprisoned, had no clue that anything was amiss. 

"Daniel?" She called shakily down the stables. 

"Regina!?" Daniel's voice called from inside a stall at the end of the run. 

Emma realised, with complete hopelessness, dread blanketing every fibre of her body, that whatever was to come; was meant to be seen by her without input.  
Her very own torture. Caged. Silent. Unseen.

Forced to witness...

 

"Regina!" Daniel let out in relief as he stepped out of the stall and saw her. Rushing down the stables towards her, his expression changed back to worry as he saw her clearly, her hair shorter, standing shoelessness in strange attire, torn up and covered in blood.

Daniel ran to her, immediately wrapping his arms around her in a hug and burying his face in the top of her head, sighing in relief at having her in his arms. He pulled back and looked down at her with concern, gently touching the skin below the cut on her cheek. 

"What happened!? Are you alright?" 

Regina couldn't speak as she simply looked up into his face with equal parts awe and disbelief. 

"Regina?" Daniel asked, unsettled by her lack of response. "Are you alright?" He pulled back further, taking in her bloodshot eyes from recent tears, her reddening chin from Rocinante's flailing, her bruised neck and wrists from Cora's vines, the grazes on her hands, ankles and knees from sliding down the cement prison floor, before focusing on her bloodied shirt. Dipping his head, he pushed aside the tattered fabric of her blouse to look at the cut along her stomach. 

Regina was brought from her reverie, gasping as his fingers brushed against the bare skin of her torso. Daniel looked up in concern and she looked down at the healing wound. 

"No- Yes. I'm fine. It was a few- days ago... I think..." 

"Your mother?" Daniel asked delicately. 

Regina looked up again, her eyes wetting with emotion as she took in his beautiful face, silent and still in shock. 

"Regina?" Daniel worried. "Did your mother do this to you?" 

Regina seemed to come back to herself again and blinked at him, starting a little before stumbling through an answer. 

"No. She- Well, actually yes. but... Not your Cora. Uhrm, it's... complicated..." 

"Regina..." Daniel said, clearly concerned. "You're speaking strangely, and you're wearing these odd clothes... You're covered in cuts and bruises and you seem..."

He closed the gap between them again, gently placing his hands on her cheeks as he stared into her face, eyes flitting over her features, taking her in. 

"You seem..."

"...Older." Regina whispered, realising what he was seeing, her eyes filling with tears.

Daniel's eyes flicked between Regina's, hesitating before finally replying. 

"But how?" He whispered with furrowed confusion, his face softening with sadness as he saw Regina's tears escaping down her cheeks. He wiped away the tears with his thumb and pulled her close to him, wrapping her in a hug, kissing the top of her head and holding onto her tightly, shielding her from whatever had happened to her. 

Regina simply broke down in his embrace. Daniel was all around her, filling her senses. Her face pressed against his chest as it rose and fell with his steady breathing, his heartbeat thudding gently beneath her cheek. The material of his linen shirt smelt so much of him, crisp against her skin. His strong arms wrapped around her, so warm and tight and comforting. He felt so safe and so real and she couldn't stop her tears as her body shook, her nervous system remembering this feeling of Daniel. Regina clutched at him so painfully, rigid in her fear that if she let go she'd lose it all to a whisp of air.

"My love..." Daniel whispered in heartache, stroking her hair, not knowing what was going on or what to do other than to comfort her. "I love you so much..." 

Regina sobbed harder into his chest and her limbs began to shake.

"Hey now." Daniel said pulling his chin in to peer down at Regina. "Where is this coming from? What has happened?" 

"I-..." Regina started to speak through her sobs, but couldn't verbalise all that she was feeling and so simply shook her head against his chest and pulled him tighter. 

Daniel seemed to sense that she just needed to be held and returned his head to rest atop hers in fortitude allowing her to simply cry. 

After a while Regina's tears seemed to lessen and she came back to herself in her sobriety. She wiped at her tears and realised that she had completely forgotten that Emma had been with her, pulling her head from Daniel as she looked around the stable run for a blonde haired sheriff. 

"Emma?" Regina called out. 

"Who?" Daniel asked, looking down at Regina, confused again. 

"Uhm... A friend." She said absently, pulling completely from Daniel's arms as she started to worry. 

"I'd like you to meet her." She said distractedly as she looked for Emma. "She was here a moment ago. I don't know where she's gone... EMMA!?" 

Regina walked to the open gate and peered inside the stall for Emma, her body stilled and her heart caught as she stared numbly down at Rocinante's body. In her exhaustion from the past few days and the shock of seeing Daniel, she had forgotten about the scene she had experienced only several minutes ago. 

"Rocinante!" Daniel cried seeing him on the floor and rushing past Regina to drop to cobblestones by his side. "Gods! Regina!" 

Looking him over for signs of injury, Daniel cupped his hand under Rocinante's cheek, feeling along his jawbone with two fingers for a pulse. Worry sunk visibly into Daniel's features as he shifted around to press the pads of his fingers into the back of Rocinante's knee. After a few moments of staying stock still, the blood drained from his face and he released his hand jarringly from the dead horse. 

"No..." He whispered, shaking his head before looking up at Regina with red eyes.

"How?" He breathed. 

Regina could only drop to the floor where she stood as tears burst free from her eyes. Daniel immediately scuffled over to her and gripping her trembling hands, ducked his head to look into her face.

"Regina, what happened?"

Regina sobbed, her body sagging, so exhausted and overwhelmed from the time she'd spent in the stables. 

"He..." She tried, her voice catching on a sob. 

She shook her head and took a shuddering breath. "I... His heart..." She dropped her eyes from Daniel's. "It was crushed."

Daniel took an angry intake of breath. "Your mother?!" 

Regina's whole body hung heavily with the painful truth of it all and her tears renewed, unable to tell him. 

Daniel wrapped himself around her as he stroked her hair and comforted her. 

"I'm so sorry Regina. My love-" 

"No!" Regina tried to push him away but he only moved back an inch and moved his hands to hold her face between them as he looked into her eyes. 

"My love. Let's run away! Let's run away tonight!" 

Regina's body stilled so quickly at the familiar words. She blinked light-headedly and brought a hand faintly to her forehead.

"I can't... I can't do this." Her eyes snapped up, looking past him as she searched the room helplessly for Emma. 

"Please. We've talked about it for so long. Let's leave her cruelty behind. Let's go find a place where we can live free of this hatred. Let's leave tonight." 

"No! Don't say that. Don't do this. Not now. I can't. Not this. Not now. Not again." 

"But..." Daniel said softly, looking confused. 

He opened his mouth but was cut off before he could speak as a female voice bawled through the stables and Regina's whole body flinched and withdrew into itself as if she had been expecting it.

"REEGIIINAAAA!" 

"I can't..." Regina dropped her head to face her lap as she tried to shut it all out. "I take it back... I shouldn't have come to you. I can't do this..."

"Yes you can." Daniel said bravely. "We have each other. We can do this."

"REGINAAAA!" 

Regina's head snapped up at the second cry and she looked to Daniel, eyes wide. 

"Run! Run Daniel!" She said frantically, scrambling to get up, pulling at his arms to raise him from the floor. "Run away from here. You can't face her. Just run. Please! I can't do this! I can't feel this again!"

As Daniel was pulled to standing, he stilled Regina by the hands and spoke strongly, shaking her arms in emphasis. 

"Regina, we'll run together. We can run away together."

Regina shook her head as her arms were shook, tears streaming down her face. 

"We can't. It doesn't work. She catches us. She kills you..." 

"You can't know that, it won't happen like that, Regina. I promise you. Let's leave now." He said hurriedly, pulling her towards the gate.

"REGINA!" 

Regina's frame seemed to wither at how close the cry was and her legs stopped moving, causing Daniel to almost drop her hand as their arms pulled taught. He stopped and turned back to her, at a loss for how to bring energy back to her as he saw the fight leaving her body. 

"Regina..." He whispered, before moving back to stand in front of her, cupping her face and kissing her. 

It was as though every cell within Regina died. 

Daniel pulled back, feeling the loss. He didn't understand. Searching her eyes for an answer and seeing nothing but emptiness, he could only kiss her forehead, imbuing her with strength and courage before pulling her out into the stable. 

Stepping directly into the presence of Cora. 

"You could have at least left a note."

With a force of magic, Cora threw them backwards, her face livid. 

"You sneak out of my house in the dead of night and think I won't notice?" Cora snarled, nostrils flaring. "How dare you!" 

Regina didn't even look up at her mother as she pushed herself heavily into a sitting position. She'd heard this all before. Turning to Daniel, she shifted over on the floor as he sat up and tucked herself against him. Burying her head in his shirt and breathing in his smell so deeply, she whispered to him, tears streaming down her face. 

"I will always love you."

"You foolish girl." Cora laughed. "You don't know what you want. But I do. After what I had to do, the deals I had to make to get us out of poverty, to get us this life! Love is just a weakness." 

"And I will always love you." Daniel whispered to Regina, holding her tight, both ignoring Cora as they sat with each other. 

"So this is—your decision. This will make you, happy?" Cora softened, trying to get a response from her daughter. 

Regina looked up into Daniel's face, blinking through her tears.

"Thank you for sharing all that you did with me." 

"Regina, this isn't goodb-" 

"No! Listen! Please Daniel." Regina said desperately, tears threatening to catch in her throat. "Your kindness, your love... I don't think you truly know what you gave me. You taught me so much. You made me laugh and smile, every day, when the rest of my life was so stressful and so lonely. You were there. And you reminded me who I was, and what I was, and what I wanted to surround myself and fill my life with. You brought me back, each and every time that I got lost. You grounded me and brought light into my dark thoughts. You saved me. For as long as you could, Daniel. You saved me. I can't ever thank you enough for the life you showed me. That you shared with me. Thank you for making me smile. Thank you for loving me..."

She raised her tear stained face to his and kissed him with so much gratitude and so much love. 

"Enough of this!" 

Cora ripped them violently apart with magic, leaving them to dangle mid-air as she looked at her daughter with revulsion. 

"I didn't make the sacrifices I have made to bring you to the cusp of greatness so that you could end up the wife of a stable boy and just toss everything that I've done for you away!"

Regina simply turned her head towards Daniel. 

"I will always love y-" 

"INSOLENT...!" Cora screamed, using her magic to force Regina's head to look straight forwards.

Cora stepped up to her daughter held above her in the air and looked up into her face. "How dare you ignore me! How DARE you? After everything!" 

Regina moved her eyes down to her mother, empty orbs staring into more empty orbs as she spat on Cora's face. 

There was a flash so fast, it took Regina a moment to feel the pain. 

"Ughn..."

"REGINA!" Daniel screamed.

There was a fury in Cora's eyes that Regina had seen too regularly in the mirror and she watched, a little removed from herself, as her own saliva slid down her mother's cheek.  
Somewhere at the back of her brain an alarm registered, accompanied by a sharp pain in her chest and she noticed three thin root-vines protruding from cracks in the stone floor behind her mother. With her head still held forwards by magic, Regina strained her eyes to look down and saw the three vines embedded in her chest.

"NO! REGINA?! CORA, LET HER DOW-"

Cora waved her hand at Daniel and a strip of fabric magicked over his mouth, silencing him. 

She looked at the vines in Regina's chest and tisked, snarling with controlled anger and turning away as if disappointed in her daughter. 

"Daniel." She said smoothly, moving over to stand in front of him. "If you want to have a life together, a family, then there's one important lesson I can impart on you. It's what it means to be a parent..." 

Daniel muffled against his gag, head still turned to Regina as he squirmed mid-air, trying to somehow get to her.

"It's okay Daniel." Regina said gently, unable to see him, her head still forced directly ahead, but she could hear his muffled cries and knew this scene too painfully well. "Look at me. I'm okay, it's not deep. Just keep looking at my face knowing I love y-" 

Cora slapped a gag over her daughter's mouth with magic, causing Regina to whimper in helplessness. Regina's head was released from its fixed position while Daniel was forced to face forwards instead. Regina turned to Daniel just as Cora plunged her hand into his chest and slowly removed it with his glowing heart clutched between her hateful fingers.

I love you, thank you, I'm so sorry, I love you thank you I love you... Regina thought over and over again in a mantra against the madness. 

Daniel emitted a noise of shock against his gag as Cora smiled disgustingly up at him with his heart in her hand. 

"...You always have to do what's best for your children." Cora finished, crushing her hand to a dusty close.

Regina let out a long visceral wine into her gag, tears cascading down her face as Daniel slumped dead and Cora released her magic, his body falling sickeningly to the floor. 

Regina shrieked against her gag, her nostrils flaring as she stared down at Daniel's lifeless body. 

"This is your happy ending, Regina." Cora said, lifting her gaze from Daniel to her daughter. 

Regina screamed at Cora through the material over her mouth. 

"You'll have to trust me, Regina. I know best." Cora said softly, walking over to Regina and standing beside the vines, lifting a hand to stroke at the cut along her daughter's cheek. Regina flinched away from her mother's touch, writhing against her magic mid-air. 

"Love is weakness, Regina. It feels real now; at the start it always does. But it's an illusion. It fades, and then you're left with nothing." She removed her hand and stepped back. "But power...?" She offered, turning and beginning to walk away. "...True power; endures. And then you don't have to rely on anyone to get what you want. I've saved you, my love." 

The vines slid out from Regina's skin and slithered away as Cora released her magic. 

Regina fell heavily to the floor with a cry. Immediately scrambling over to Daniel and pulling him into her arms with great effort. Clutching at him desperately, completely disregarding her bloody chest wounds as she wailed into his body. 

Cora turned to look over her shoulder, eyeing her daughter and her dead stable boy before smirking and disappearing in a whirlwind of purple smoke, her voice echoing throughout the stables.

 

"You're going to make a phenomenal queen."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life has been... Life.  
> I moved countries for a job. Was sexually assaulted on the plane over by the man next to me. Spent eight hours in one room at a police station at the stopover in a middle eastern country to press charges where there was a heinous language barrier and a whole bunch of gross rape culture questions from the policemen. I missed my next flight, got a new flight, arrived in the destined country. Post traumatic stress disorder eating at me. After a month the bosses ask me to take all my piercings out, cutt off my tied on bracelets and change my hair. I quit. Was a little bit homeless for a bit in a foreign country. Made it home to my own country a week ago. Where I'm doing nothing but a whole bunch of self care, easy does it, you're doing great, burning incense, meditating in my new rental's garden and writing.  
> Writing is my healing place.  
> Hence; this chapter.
> 
> Why do we not talk about the shit things that happen in the world, why are we silent when we can speak up and say "so this is a shit thing" and "you're not alone"...?  
> Well this is me saying, you're not alone.  
> Life can be painful and dark, gross and unjust. But that's the playground we've been given and without that dark side, it wouldn't be real.  
> I think what I'm trying to say is, if you're going through something really hard, please stick around, please keep playing the game with us.


	8. Searching

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Storybrooke, the gang search for more information.

Henry was the first to wake in the Charming household. It was a Saturday, which meant, happily, no school. But, as he opened his eyes, the memories of yesterday came roaring back and the weight of what had happened to his mums settled in his chest. Sitting up heavily, he rubbed his eyes and turned to the strange sight of Ruby and Hook sharing a bed.  
Ruby had told him, when she and Snow had come upstairs a little after he'd hugged everyone goodnight, that they were all going to be taking turns watching over his mums and this must be the way their sleeping arrangements had ended. 

He was a little surprised that he'd not heard the shift changeovers in the night and felt anxiety pool in his stomach. Hoping he'd not slept through important things happening and that his mums were alright, he silently put socks and a hoodie on and crept downstairs. 

He found Snow asleep in the chair beside the bed and his lips twitched up in a smile at his Grandma's lolling head and open mouth.  
He decided not to wake her, choosing to simply see this as his shift for watching over his mums. Moving quietly past her, he climbed onto the bed and knelt again between his unconscious mothers.

Hectic things were always happening in Storybrooke and dramatic incidents like; everyone squishing into beds at his grandparents' apartment or universal gods stealing his mums' conciousnesses for torture, were exciting Henry less and less. 

When he was younger, he had always dreamt of fantastical events happening and he'd craved the adventure involved with magic and fighting 'big bads'. He one-hundred-percent got all of that when he recieved the Once Upon a Time book from Snow and hopped on a bus to go knock on Emma's door. But over the years, as more and more trouble, destruction and death had crept through the lives of the people of Storybrooke, he witnessed his mums enduring the brunt of the fight and it was hard to enjoy the adventure when they seemed to be the focus of bad forces. His mums never shared their exhaustion with him, but he was an emotionally intelligent kid and it was impossible not to see that the stress of it all was taking a toll.

Henry sighed heavily as he looked over his mothers' spiritless bodies. There was bruising around both of their necks and wrists, and his eyes locked onto the blood that had dried brown on Regina's white blouse over night. 

Glancing over at Snow and checking she was still asleep, he lifted his mum's top a little and peered underneath to look at her stomach. A white bandage was wrapped around her midsection and, with a flutter of relief, no blood had seeped through while they'd slept. 

Sighing, he settled back on his heels again and took their hands, looking between their faces. He frowned at Emma and blinked a few times, noticing something off. Her arm was sticking out away from her body at an odd angle and her shoulder was sitting lower than the other. He was raising off his knees to get a closer look when Snow spoke. 

"We're going to figure this out Henry..." 

Henry nearly toppled off the bed as his heart catapulted to the ceiling with fright, dropping onto his butt on the mattress, he turned incredulously to Snow. 

"Jesus, Grandma..." He stuttered, hand on his chest. 

"I'm sorry Henry. I didn't mean to startle you..." 

Snow pushed herself out of the chair to stand, looking down at her daughter sadly. She'd woken to witness Henry taking his mums' hands and her heart had wrung. She understood exactly the worry and concern that her grandson was feeling and wanted nothing more than to ease it for him. Leaning over her unconscious daughter, she kissed the top of his soft brown hair. 

"Good morning. And language." Snow greeted and admonished, pulling back and smirking at him knowingly. 

She turned to the kitchen clock and stretched, yawning. 8am. 

Dropping her arms, she spotted the top of her husband's head beneath the blankets on the pull-out sofa cot and her heart warmed. A healthy breakfast would go a long way to giving the troops an edge for all that was needed today... Whatever that might be.

"Breakfast." She said, turning her head to Henry and smiling before moving to the kitchen and filling the kettle. 

"Would you like some orange juice?"

Henry looked back at Emma's arm and figured she'd just been lain down a little awkwardly. He would ask his granddad to adjust her to lay naturally when he was awake. 

"Yes please." Henry said, smiling sheepishly at Snow after swearing and moving to slide off the end of the bed. 

A hollow pop sounded from behind Henry and he paused on the edge of the mattress, turning back to his mums, eyebrows raised in alarm as he looked between them.

Emma's arm and shoulder was laying naturally against the bed again. 

"Grandma..." Henry called hesitantly. 

"Yes Henry?" Snow chirped as she pulled tea cups out of the cupboard. 

"I think Ma's arm just moved..." 

"What!?" Snow let out over the chinking of china as the cups nearly jumped out of her hand. Putting them down hastily, she rushed to the bed.

"Ma's arm, it was laying differently..." 

"She moved?" Snow asked, hope evident in her voice as she sat on the bed gently and placed her hand on her daughter's arm. 

"I don't know..."

"Emma, Sweety?" Snow said softly, putting pressure on her daughter's arm, squeezing for attention and looking at her face for any sign of arousal.

"What happened?" Charming asked sleepily, walking towards them from the lounge,  
rubbing his face, having been woken by the clattering of tea cups.

"Henry said he saw Emma move." Snow said in hurried optimism as she put an arm out, opening herself for her husband to stand beside her where he rest his hand on her shoulder while she remained sitting on the bed.

"I didn't see her move. But she did move." Henry said, frustrated with Snow misinterpreting his words. 

"What do you mean?" David asked, his attention caught by the possibility of Emma regaining conciousness. 

"Ma's shoulder looked funny earlier and now it doesn't." Henry said, looking earnestly at his grandfather. 

David smiled warmly at Henry, recognising his annoyance with being misunderstood and unable to articulate himself properly.

"Explain what you mean by that Henry. What did you see?" He asked gently. 

Henry took a breath and frowned as he thought for a moment, clearing his thoughts and finding the words. 

"Earlier, Ma's arm was laying at a funny angle and her shoulder was lower than usual. It looked uncomfortable and I was gonna ask you to lay her in a relaxed position when you woke up. But I was just getting off the bed when there was a sort of 'pop' noise and I looked back and her arm was in a different position... It looked back to normal..." Henry looked down at his blonde mother as he spoke, finishing, he looked up to his granddad in worry. 

"Which arm?" David asked, moving from Snow's side to the head of the bed and turning to Henry. 

Henry pointed and Charming pulled the collar of Emma's unzipped jacket out past her right shoulder to reveal dark browny purples and light yellowy greens mottling over her skin. 

Snow let out a breath just as Charming sucked in between his teeth and their eyes met in understanding. 

"I don't get it... What happened?" Henry asked, scrambling up the bed, his stomach dropping as he caught sight of the bruises covering his mum's upper arm and shoulder just as David covered them by easing Emma's jacket back into place. 

Snow and Charming exchanged a look. 

"Don't do that! Just tell me." Henry said loudly, annoyed with his grandparents' reticence. 

"Okay Henr-" Charming started furtively before Snow answered, cutting him off. 

"Her arm was dislocated." She said honestly, watching Henry closely. 

Henry's eyebrows pulled in together and his bottom lip pressed heavily into his top lip as he stared down at his blonde mum. He looked up at Snow and Charming, eyes flitting between their faces before he nodded silently and blinked back down at Emma, taking her hand. 

"Grandma's right, Ma. We're gonna figure this out." He said, using Snow's words from earlier. "We're gonna get you back."

\--------------

Ruby pulled up out the front of Granny's and turned the engine off. She looked over at Henry, raising her eyebrows and pulling her mouth to the side. 

"I dunno if we're gonna find answers here dude. I don't mean to be a bubble burster but I'm just preparing you for coming away empty handed is all..." 

"Yehhh." Henry sighed. "I know. But even if Granny can't tell us anything new, that's still more progress than not having come to talk to her, I guess."

"Woah..." Ruby let out. "You're profound little man..." 

Henry chuckled at Ruby and beamed at her. 

"Alright, let's do this. Also, lunch is on me." She said winking at him before opening her Camaro door and getting out.  
The morning had been slow to get going and Ruby was grateful to be feeling productive at last. 

She'd gotten up for her uneventful shift of Swan/Mills watch at 2:30 in the morning to take over from Hook. When she'd returned to sleep at 5:00 am, Hook had been snoring softly on the side she'd originally left empty, so she fell into the space Snow had left and crashed out quickly, only to be woken a few hours later to an empty room and the smell of cooking eggs wafting up the stairs. As she'd rolled over and stretched languidly, listening to the sounds of domesticity below, she'd felt a little relieved that Hook and Henry weren't still asleep, grateful that she had a moment of privacy. It was an intense thing to be happening, Regina and Emma being abducted by a god and all, and she'd lain looking up at the slanted ceiling, the familiar dark weight from Regina's office still clawing at her.  
She'd not been able to shake it and the dread bothered her, Gold's words too accurate, only adding to her disturbance: 

"... the more it felt like memories of dread from your own experiences?"

An old man, Granny's work room in the Enchanted Forrest, pages of writing, and the hem of her burgundy dress sitting on her seven year old knee caps had scattered their way obtrusively into her mind. She had shaken her head and climbed out of bed, not giving the memories any time as she'd made her way downstairs. She'd sat at the kitchen table where Snow then placed a plate of fried mushrooms, eggs, tomatoes, spinach and beans in front of her with a nurturing bestfriend smile. 

She truly loved their odd little cross-world family. 

Everyone had eaten and she had been filled in on the details of Emma's dislocated shoulder. After a brief discussion, it was decided that Snow would go with Hook to Gold's pawn shop and if they couldn't get answers from the dark one himself, they'd implore Belle's assistance with help finding texts her husband might have squirreled somewhere. Charming was to stay in the apartment, watching over Emma and Regina and set up the two extra beds from their storage room out in the hall, with the strict instruction to call Snow if the unconscious women were injured further. While Ruby and Henry were tasked with visiting Granny to ask her if she knew anything about missing scents and would assist Snow and Hook when they were done. 

There'd been a brief conversation about other avenues of investigation, but everyone agreed that the stronger leeds were worth their attention more today. 

Now, as she followed Henry up the steps to the diner, Ruby found herself doubting that her productive feeling would be met with the answers she wanted to hear from her gran. 

\--------------

David had just closed the door after waving his wife goodbye when he looked across at the women and swore.

Rushing over, he grabbed a tissue and held it to Emma's bleeding nose. Pulling it back and seeing more blood spring forth, he pushed it back against her nostril quickly. 

He looked over at Regina's clean upper lip with relief and then looked down at his daughter again, scanning her body for any other new signs of distress. His attention was caught by the small brown patches of blood in the denim covering Emma's knees. 

"Damn..." He said tiredly, lifting the bloody tissue away from his daughter's nose and, noting the slowing flow, replaced it with a fresh one. 

He hadn't slept very well last night. Not being in his own bed with Snow and waking each time there was movement, anxiety spiking, as people changed over shifts... It had all left his mood pretty low. 

After a few minutes he checked Emma's nose again and sighed with relief as the bleeding had stopped. 

Discarding the tissues. He walked to the bottom of the bed and carefully removed his daughter's boots. Taking off her socks, he began to roll the denim up her left leg, hoping to be able to see her knee injuries, but only managed to push the tight fabric about half way up her calf before it would go no further. 

Sighing frustratingly, he stood back and glared at the tiny bloody blotches soaked into the denim. Something about pulling Emma's jeans down ruffled his sense of appropriation. He stood, considering cutting the jeans up to her knee, when he shook his head at himself. He respected his daughter's privacy, especially when it came to her body but there was no immediate rush to destroy her clothes and see her knees as the blood was minimal. 

He rolled her jeans leg back down and put her socks back on. Leaving her boots tucked under the bed, deciding to keep an eye on the patches with the intention that he would, ofcourse, take her jeans off if it became necessary.

Sighing again and thinking absently about getting some hospital gowns, he stood up and ran his hand through his hair. This was going to be a long day. 

He checked Emma's shoulder for any changes and looked at Regina's stomach dressing, comforted that there was no fresh blood. 

As he inspected the bruises around Regina's neck, he had a bizzare moment of detachment and he looked up into the brunette's relaxed features. 

It seemed so strange that Regina be laying here, now, in his and Snow's bed; A friend.  
All the chaos and disruption and heartache in their lives, for so many years... Was because of this woman's pain. It really was hard to reconcile that this Regina was the same person that murdered villages and caused so much hurt of her own. How could she have allowed that darkness to fester within her so deeply and for so long that it created the hatred that enabled her to kill without feeling remorse?

Maybe she did feel remorse but she had learnt to ignore it, he thought uncomfortably as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and typed a message out to Snow. He figured this wasn't urgent enough for a call and a text would simply encourage her to continue finding some answers.

He looked up at the women, lost in thought for a few minutes until his phone beeped in reply. 

'Thank you for letting me know. Nothing on the Gold front yet. Will update if we find something.  
I love you too. You're right, we DO have this. Xox' 

He smiled at his wife's shared optimism and sat down in the chair beside the bed. 

Fifteen minutes passed and, feeling more confident that nothing further was going to happen to the women at the moment, he stood up. His thoughts still on Regina and all that had transpired over the forty something years that'd he'd been one of her targets, he looked down at the brunette. 

One thing could not be argued; she was damn powerful. How could anyone, who had witnessed the explosion of destruction and death over the lands during her rule as Queen, deny that she was a force all of her own? He knew there was more to Regina's story than she'd shared, there always was with stories of pain. Whatever she'd been through, she sure as hell made it clear that, when she was in the Enchanted Forest, she wasn't the type to live and let live. 

'Hell really has no fury like a woman wronged.'  
He thought sadly as he grabbed his keys to bring in the extra beds from their storage room out in the hall. 

'So much pain from so much pain...'

\--------------

Snow looked at Hook with her eyebrows raised, the pirate mimicking her expression as they stood in front of the locked pawn shop. 

"Well that's something." Snow said, frustrated, pulling her hand from the immovable handle and looking down at the tiny 'closed' sign that was hanging behind the glass.

"Aye." Hook agreed, pressing his face against the window and peering into the dark store. 

"He's hardly ever closed..." Snow mumbled, frowning as she looked through the window too. "It's Saturday, it's his busiest day... "

Hook pulled away from the glass. This didn't feel right. He'd seen the fear on Gold's face the night before and he'd only ever seen that look on those features aboard his ship when Rumplestiltskin was mortal, a coward, and losing his wife at the end of a sword... The idea of the Dark One being frightened like that made his stump itch and a growing dis-ease to expand in his gut. 

"This doesn't bode well, Love..." Hook said, sharing his discomfort. 

Snow pulled back from the window too, the dark aisles of bric-a-brac giving nothing away. She turned to Hook, her own concerns bothering her. 

"Let's try the back." She said, setting her shoulders with positive determination and nodding once. 

Snow's phone dinged and she paused, pulling it from her jacket and reading the message. 

'Hey Honey,  
Emma just had a slight blood nose. Only about a minute. Also has some blood on her jeans over her knees.  
Nothing major. Am monitoring and WILL call if anything more extreme happens.  
Any progress with Gold?  
Regina is as before.  
Love you. We've got this. X' 

"All okay?" Hook asked, concerned as he saw Snow face drop. 

"Emma has a blood nose and bloody knees..." She said quietly, staring at her phone. 

"We're gonna fix this, Love" Hook said, noting her dejection and placing his hand on her arm in support. "It's why we're here hey, get us some answers." 

Snow looked up at him for a beat and nodded. Typing a response and sending it off, she put both hands in her jacket pockets and took a deep breath in, smiling gratefully.  
Nodding more resolutely, she started moving again and they walked around the corner of the store. Nearing the side door at the back end on the building, Hook reached it first and tried the handle 

"Locked too..."

"Here, let me take a look." Snow offered. 

Stepping forward and pulling a delicate foldable blade from her pocket, she pushed it into the gap of the door frame and slid it up as she leant heavily on the door, her other hand pulling the handle down. With a click the door jerked and she stood back, allowing it to swing open.

"After you." She said with a smile, holding her hand inside in a chivalrous gesture.

Hook stood back, not moving, eyebrows raised.

"Ugh." Snow let out, dropping her hand and walking into the store in front of Hook, no time for gender bias, she muttered:

"Bandit..."

\--------------

"Hey Gran." Ruby said as she settled on a stool at the counter. 

Granny looked critically over the top of her glasses at Ruby and then down at Henry as he climbed up onto the seat next to her. 

"So... You wanna tell me what's so urgent that you run out during lunch rush yesterday with no explanation other than; 'Charming needs me, gotta go', and then you're a no show today, until..." Granny paused, looking up at the diner clock. "11:47?"

Ruby sighed. 

"I'm not too bad, thanks. And you?" She said sarcastically. 

"Don't you even dare with that!" Eugene said angrily, pointing a finger at her granddaughter. "I was up all night worrying about whatever new drama you've gotten yourself involved in, with not even a call to tell me you're alright and then you have the nerve to show up and 'Hey Gran' me?!" 

"Gran don't start." Ruby threw back heatedly, bracing her hands on the counter top. "We've had this conversation before! As your granddaughter: I'm a damn adult and can do what I want. That includes staying out all night. I'm not the one with anxiety, that's your problem to work on. We've all got things to worry about and I'm not gonna go out of my way when shit's going down to pick up my phone so I can ease yours and pander to your fear. That's not the relationship I want with you. And, as your employee: I am never sick, work ridiculous hours for lousy pay, every single day that you're open, and deal with the madness of meal-time rushes from hangry customers without complaint! So, if my friends are in trouble and call on me, I bloody well deserve to be able to take immediate time off without notice!" She finished, slamming her hands on the diner top for emphasis, her eyebrows raised as she stared challengingly at her grandmother. 

"Uhhh..." Henry started, looking nervously between the Lucas women. "I'll sit somewhere else till you guys are done..." 

He began to slide off his stool when Ruby's arm shot out, grabbing the back of his jacket and keeping him on the seat.

"It's okay Henry." The brunette said through her teeth, her glare not moving from Eugene's eyes. "Granny and I are done. We understand each other, don't we Gran?"

There was a beat of silence where Henry looked back and forth between Granny and Ruby, certain that one of them were about to initiate a brawl, when just like that, Granny nodded sharply, pulling away from the counter and standing up straight, turning her attention to Henry with a relaxed smile.

"And good morning Henry! How are you today dear?" She asked cheerfully, causing Ruby to release her hold on Henry's jacket, smiling as equally airily.

"Uh... Alright thanks Granny..." He answered nervously, completely taken aback by what had just transpired. 

"What can I get you both this morning?" 

"I'll have a veggie burger with a coffee please. And Henry?"

"Uhm! Can I please haaave..." Henry stalled, still a little shocked. "Grilled cheese and a hot chocolate with-" 

"Cinnamon." Granny finished for him with a knowing smile. "Coming right up."

Granny walked to the kitchen window and passed the order on to Floyd. 

Henry took the time to look up at Ruby with wide eyes. 

"What was that all about!" He whispered shrewdly.

"Oh that?" Ruby said looking down the counter to her grandmother making their hot drinks and flapped her hand apathetically at Henry. "That was nothing. Gran just gets dramatic about my whereabouts a lot. It's nowhere near as bad as it used to be. It used to make me go insane. She's eased off heaps after a long chat a couple of years ago."

She smiled at Henry, laughing a little at his bewildered face. 

"Honestly it's all good buddy." Ruby said rubbing her hand comfortingly on the shocked kids back. "I just needed to remind her is all." 

Henry swallowed and relaxed with a small smile, before his brows pulled together in thought. 

"Why is she so on your case?"

Henry didn't miss Ruby's smile faltering and her eyes glazing over for second before she blinked and returned to the room. 

"I wasn't the easiest kid for her to keep an eye on. Always running off and getting into mischief..." She began, a little lost in thought before turning to him with a wry smile. "All the best adults were always a little untamable when they were young." She finished with a cheeky grin and poked him in the arm. 

"Don't you go filling good Henry's head with your runabout ways." Granny mocked light-heartedly as she returned with their drinks. 

"Come on, Granny. I've always been a little bit of a trouble maker..." He said with a coy smile. 

"You're not wrong!" Granny chuckled as she placed their drinks down in front of them and leant back with a sigh.

"So... Something tells me you didn't just come here for my coffee or grilled cheese." She sobered. 

Henry looked up at Ruby from his hot chocolate. 

"Have you ever sensed an emotion before?" Ruby asked without missing a beat. 

"What do mean, 'sensed an emotion'?" Granny asked quizzically, leaning forward in interest. 

"As a wolf thing... Like, have you ever felt an emotion coming off something before?" Ruby tried to explain to her grandmother. "Like, almost smell, and hear, and see, and taste, and... And really feel an emotion? Like, pick it up completely, as your own, just by being near a person or place?" 

"I don't think so..." She said slowly before frowning and chewing on the inside of her cheek in thought. "I mean, I've walked into a room and gotten a bad feeling. An instinct. If that's what you're on about?" 

"You've never felt a suddenly strong emotion that wasn't yours? Through your whole being?Like dread? From a magical source?" 

Granny allowed her gaze to unfocus on the wall across from her as she thought back to her wolf days.

"I don't believe so... I imagine I'd remember feeling something like that..." She said, blinking and giving Ruby an apologetic smile. 

"Oh..." Ruby said looking into her coffee cup, disheartened regardless of preparing herself for not getting answers. 

"Have you ever smelt half a person?" She asked, looking up hopefully. "As a wolf?"

Eugene leant back and narrowed her eyes at her granddaughter.

"What do you mean by 'half a person'?" 

\--------------

Snow stepped cautiously into the back room of Gold's shop and looked around in the darkness. The sunlight from out in the sidestreet seemed to be swallowed immediately by the shadows in the room. 

"GOLD? BELLE?" She called out as she ventured further through the room, Hook trailing quietly behind. 

A miriad of objects in various states of disrepair were sitting in bookshelves on the walls. A filing cabinet and pigeon hole set of drawers sat in the middle of the room and formed a divide between the curtained door that led into the main shop and Gold's desk that housed a variety of alchemic looking tumblers and beakers. 

"BELLE?" "CROCODILE?" Snow and Hook called in tandem as they moved through the curtain and looked around the main shop. 

"Everything seems normal aside from the fact that no one's here." Snow said frustrated, as she looked over the display cases. 

"What's he playing at?" Hook said quietly as he knelt to look absently at the paperwork below the counter.

"I don't think we're going to find any answers here. Maybe we should try their house?" Snow offered, scanning the shop once more before turning to Hook. 

"As good a plan as any." He agreed, standing up. 

"I just don't get it, why would he close?" Snow thought aloud as she began to move to the back room.

"Aye." Hook said thoughtfully, running his hook along the counter edge as he followed. "It's not like that worm doesn't enjoy turning us away. He loves the power trip of refusing to help. He gets all smug and gleeful." He finished with a sneer. 

"You know, you're right. He would be relishing this opportunity to turn us away. So what's he hiding from?" Snow asked as they walked through the back room to the side street door. 

"The damned reptile was too blasé at your apartment... I saw the fear when I came here and first mentioned what Red had smelt. Then the way he poofed off last night, snatching poor Belle, like she was baggage to pack..."

They had just stepped out into the sunlight of the street when Snow stopped, turning to Hook as he pulled the door closed and she appraised his features in the light. 

"You know, I'm surprised to hear you say that Killian."

"That Imp has always been a dagger in my side and it bothers me; the way he treats Belle." 

Snow gave him a suprised look. 

"I wouldn't have thought reserved and quiet was your type..." 

"Belle? She's not. Trust me." He chuckled, before his features darkened. "I just don't like it when men handle women with ownership or take their autonomy." 

Snow crossed her arms and raised an impugning eyebrow. 

"All right, Love, easy there. I'm not pretending my past didn't exist. I know who I used to be. But I've changed a lot over the last few years. Your daughter taught me a lot." 

"Emma did?" Snow asked, confused. 

"Not like that." Hook said, holding his hand and hook up. "She's not my type either, or more accurately I'm not her type. But, Aye. She's a smart lass. Being friends, we've had many a drunken chat and she's taught me a lot about the way women are treated in this world... And ours." He added as an afterthought. 

"Huh..." Snow let out, impressed. 

She looked over his face before turning and walking towards the main street. "Well let's go make sure Belle's alright and see if we can't talk Gold round."

They reached the shop front and had walked to Snow's Jeep when she stopped and blinked up at Hook. 

"What's Emma's type?" She asked, curiously. 

Hook smirked at the princess. 

"Oh... Authoritive, tanned, firey..." 

"Emma's into firemen?" Snow asked bewildered . 

Hook smiled widely at Snow. 

"Yup, your daughter falls head over heals for someone who bare-handedly fights with fire..."

"Well whatdya know..." Snow said absently as she opened the car door and climbed in. 

\--------------

Ruby had spent fifteen minutes quietly telling her grandmother all the details about what had happened yesterday with Emma and Regina. Asking her to keep it all hush for safety's sake, she went on to explain as best she could about being able to smell a hollow space in her friends' scents. 

"I'm sorry Ruby." Eugene apologised as she laid their food in front of them. "I've never experienced anything like smelling an incomplete person before." 

Ruby sighed and picked at the crusty bun of her burger, while Henry took a bite of his toasted cheese. The horrible feeling of helpless dread that she'd tried to explain sitting too uncomfortably in her stomach to want to eat.  
Silence had fallen over them and she swallowed, looking strangely up at her grandmother who was beginning to clear away their empty drinks. 

"Do you remember that man who used to tutor me at the cottage when I was young, the one with the crooked back?" 

A jarring crash rang throughout the diner as Henry's mug fell from Granny's hands, the porcelain cracking on the counter top and falling to the floor, shattering, pieces flying in every direction as they skittered across the linoleum.

An eerie quiet followed as the shocked patrons turned to look at Granny who was frozen staring abstractly at Ruby as if trying to see through her. 

The noise picked up again and Henry put down his toastie, nervously reaching across the counter, he placed his hand gently on Granny's arm. The touch seemed to bring her back and she blinked anxiously.

"Never mind..." Ruby said quickly, looking down. 

"I could never forget..." Gran said shakily, her eyes holding too many emotions to read. "You've... You've never once spoken about him. I thought... I thought you didn't remember." She said quietly.

"I didn't." Ruby said slowly, staring at her untouched burger. "Until yesterday."

Ruby looked up at her Gran, tears swimming in her eyes. 

"Oh Ruby..." Gran let out, her own tears brimming and she rushed around the counter to where Ruby swivelled towards her and wrapped her in a hug. 

"I'm so sorry. I'm SO sorry..." Granny husked into her granddaughter's hair. "I didn't see it. I didn't see it... For so long. ...I thought- I hoped... When you never spoke about it... I'd hoped you were too young to remember..." 

She pulled backed and framed her granddaughter's face, looking into her eyes with sadness. 

"If I'd have known... I never-..." 

Tears were silently falling down Ruby's face and, unable to speak, all she could do was nod and try to give her grandmother a watery smile before she ducked her head and pulled back into the hug. 

After a few seconds, Ruby squeezed a little tighter and the two pulled apart. 

"Another time..." Ruby said wetly, tilting her head a fraction towards Henry, then reassured her grandmother. "I'm okay though, I promise." 

Granny placed a hand on Ruby's cheek, looking into her eyes, biting her own lip in sorrow before nodding and pulling away. 

Henry had been silently watching since the mug had smashed and had no idea what was going on, but he did understand that, whatever it was, it was heavy. And as Ruby dried her face with her sleeves and Granny flustered back around the counter to fetch a broom for the mug, he couldn't help but want to throw his arms around his friend in the biggest hug. 

"Are you okay?" He asked quietly, holding himself back as she swivelled back to face the counter. 

Ruby smiled down at him and put her hand on his forearm to give it a gentle squeeze. 

"Yeh, little dude. I'm alright." 

Henry could see that the smile wasn't quite meeting her eyes. He wanted to ask her so many questions but he figured she'd tell him if she wanted too and knew she wasn't really up to it, so he didn't push it. 

Turning back to his barely touched grilled cheese, his stomach rumbled loudly. He glanced up at Ruby to see her grinning knowingly down at him and he smiled sheepishly at her before taking a bite.

Granny returned from sweeping up the broken porcelain, her shoulders not quite as straight and her eyes a little less shiny, but regardless, she leant casually on the counter in her Granny-matter-of-fact way. 

"So, Regina and Emma... You think there's an answer in only smelling parts of them?" 

Ruby sighed, brought back to their heavy reality with her friends. 

"I dunno. Maybe. It just seems important somehow..." 

Granny looked strongly at her granddaughter as the diner door chimed. 

"I'm proud of you." She boosted. "Trust your instincts my girl, they often know before you do."

"Thanks Gran." Ruby said with a smile. 

"Mmhmm." Granny nodded, her gaze lingering on Ruby's face a little longer than usual before bustling away to take orders. 

Henry downed his lunch and Ruby put hers into a take away bag for when she felt more like eating. As they got off their stools and headed for the exit, Ruby stopped to hug Granny deeply. 

"I'll come see you tomorrow." Ruby said genuinely to her grandmother. 

Granny had watery eyes as she pulled away and just simply pressed her lips together and nodded, squeezing her granddaughter's hands. 

Walking down the steps and heading for the Camaro, Henry looked up at Ruby. 

"Can I give you a hug?" He asked timidly. 

Ruby stopped and looked down at him in suprise. 

"Yeah buddy. Of course."

Henry dove into Ruby's stomach, causing her to stagger and laugh as he wrapped his arms around her. 

"I'm okay, my man. Really." She said as she settled her hands on his back and rubbed reassuring circles. 

"Good." He muffled into her jacket, staying for a few beats for emphasis before pulling away and smiling warmly up at her. 

Ruby smiled back at him in gratitude before changing the tone. 

"We should check in with your Grandma and see if they could use some back up hey?" 

"Alright!" Henry said, nodding in enthusiasm for further sleuthing and walked to the car. 

As Ruby walked to the driver's side, she pulled out her phone and, climbing in, she dialled Snow, hoping for some good news. 

\--------------

"I don't get it!" Snow called out to Hook as she walked down Gold's ornate staircase. "Where could they have gone?" 

"He'll have somewhere that we don't know about." Hook called back frustratingly from the dining room as he looked around at the finery with distaste. "Somewhere with all the trimmings. He doesn't last long without luxury."

Snow stopped in the doorway, leaning against the frame. 

"But where is that in Storybrooke?" She asked. 

Hook jumped, nearly dropping the silver goblet he was inspecting, not realising Snow had come to the room. 

"Well, I can imagine it'd be grand and screaming compensation..." He said as he put the silver down and composed himself. 

When they'd driven past Gold's house, the windows were drawn and it looked quiet. They'd parked a house down, out of sight and walked around the back, hoping to catch the Imp unawares. Snow had worked her lock skills and they'd snuck into the house, splitting up and searching each room, slowly giving up on the notion that he was there somewhere, hiding. 

"There's got to be a hidden room in this house that holds all his most precious secrets..." Snow thought aloud, pushing off the door frame. "I'm going to check his study again."

Snow's phone rang in her pocket and starting, her heart dropped as the fear of something happening to Emma ran through her. She pulled her phone out and relief relaxed her muscles as a photo of her and Ruby smiling together came up on the screen. 

"Hey Rubes." She chimed, her face sobering as Ruby spoke. "Oh damn. That's okay. Well, we could use your skills at Gold's. No, his house. No, empty. Yep, for anything really. Unfortunately not, it was empty too. Exactly. Alright, see you soon."

Snow hung up the phone and looked to Hook. 

"No luck with Granny. They're on their way here." 

"Hopefully the wolf will be able to pick something up." Hook offered with a weak smile.

Snow mirrored the attempted smile and turned back towards the study across the hall. 

"There's gotta be something..." She muttered under her breath as she stepped into the room. 

Standing with her hands on her hips, she looked around. She didn't know what she was looking for. A hidden passage or a nefarious book, a presumptuous looking switch or a hastily scrawled note? She had not a clue. Sighing in frustration and feeling completely inept, she moved over to the desk and began to rifle through the drawers. 

Fifteen minutes of searching the study had turned up nothing and she was so relieved when she heard the purr of Ruby's Camaro outside. Walking to the front door, she peered through the stained glass squares and opened the door. 

Ruby and Henry smiled at her as they walked up the path. 

"It's nice to see two of my favourite smiles." She remarked. 

"That bad huh?" Ruby asked as they took the steps. 

"Am I that easy to read?" Snow asked as she recieved Henry's hug and lowered her arms around him. 

"Nah... Well, a little bit." Ruby chuckled as Henry moved inside and she hugged her bestfriend. 

"I'm just frustrated with our progress." Snow sighed as they entered the house. "We really need the books that Gold mentioned Regina had found when she was younger. But I don't know what I'm looking for."

"Alright?" Hook greeted as he stepped into the hall. 

"As much as we can be." Ruby said to him, nodding before she turned back to Snow. "Well, I'll have a sniff around and see what comes up." 

"Thank you." Snow said with a smile and a sigh. 

Ruby closed her eyes and took a deep breath, opening them, she turned towards the study. Remnants of Gold and Belle's scent were everywhere, frowning, she focused on the strongest and most recent of Gold's. She walked over to a bookshelf and placed two fingers on an gap between books, lifting her hand higher she did the same in two places on the top shelf. 

"He took books from here." She said, turning to the three that were watching from the doorway. 

Moving out past them, she took the stairs where they followed quietly in tow. She found Gold and Belle's bedroom by smell alone, Gold's touches lingering freshly on the dresser and wardrobe. She opened the drawers to smell his hands rifling through. 

"Belle's not here..." She noticed, a little perplexed. "Like, she wasn't here. Gold was. This morning sometime. He's taken clothing, hers as well. But she wasn't here..."

"He packed for her?" Snow voiced. 

"Well that's a bloody good sign." Hook said mordantly. 

Snow gave him a look and he raised his hand and hook slightly, conceding. 

Ruby moved through the top floor, barely glancing in some rooms that she could tell held no answers before descending the staircase. Gold's scent was drawing her to the back of the house, so she walked to the end of the entrance hall and into the kitchen.  
She followed her nose to a door that revealed steps into the basement. Swallowing, she looked up at her friends with raised eyebrows before shrugging and slowly stepping down into the room. 

The basement was gloomy and lit only by the overcast sunlight streaming through a ground level window at the far end. 

Able to see well enough with her wolf eyes, Ruby walked further into the room, taking in the shelves of oddities and bric-a-brac that seemed like overflow from Gold's shop.  
Her nose was leading her to the wall on the left when Hook let out a noise of fright behind her. 

"Huuughooooarghhh!"

Turning, she saw him flailing his arms around him, battling with a tiny cord hanging from the ceiling. 

"Hook." Ruby said calmly, rolling her eyes in the dark as she walked over to him and pulled the chord. 

The light bulb above flickered on and she placed a hand on his shoulder before turning back to the wall with a smirk. 

Henry sniggered as Hook coughed, trying to conceal his damaged dignity. 

"There's something here..." Ruby said as she stopped in front of the brick wall. "Gold's all over it and..." She licked her lips, tasting a familiar tang. "Magic..."

"Can you hear the hum?" She asked eagerly with a smile, turning to the three as they gathered beside her. 

"I can't hear anything." Snow said as the other two shook their heads. 

"Huh..." Ruby said, her smile dying, unshared, as she looked back to the wall. 

Raising her hand she slowly placed her fingertips against the brick, her breath catching as they disappeared into it. Pulling her hand back, she looked at her fingers before pushing her hand through the bricks. 

"A mirage..." Hook said, impressed. 

Ruby pulled her hand back and, bracing herself on the real bricks either side of the illusion, she leant forward, ducking her head through. 

"Huh..." Her voice echoed. "There's nothing here." 

Pulling back, she gestured towards it. 

They all stuck their heads through the wall, the light from the basement bulb casting through the magical mirage and allowing them to see a tiny, square room, about the size of a toilet stall.

"That can't be all there is..." Snow said, the last to pull back. 

"Maybe there's more to it?" Henry offered. 

Ruby chewed her lip before stepping through the mirage and pressing on the bricks uselessly. 

"Ugh! It's just a-..." She began. "Hang on..."

Snow put her head through, Henry's appearing quickly below to her left and they watched as Ruby sniffed at the wall and moved her head into the right corner. 

"There's air coming through here. Like, musty air..." 

She turned back to Snow and Henry, the illusion only one way, she could see out into the basement clearly and an idea came to her. 

"Maybe there is more to it." She said slowly, mimicking Henry, stepping back out as Henry and Snow pulled away and she looked around the room. 

Sniffing the air, she moved into the centre of the basement until she caught Gold and whipped her head in the direction of the scent. Opposite the steps, against the wall, sat an ornamental mahogany chest of drawers. Walking over to it, she was drawn to the back left corner of it where Gold was all over it, as fresh as the scent in his bedroom.  
Her fingers curled underneath the ornate lip as she ran her hand along the edge to the back corner where her index finger brushed over a small lump. She smiled and looked over her shoulder at her friends as she pushed it in. 

A loud click sounded in the wall behind the chest of drawers followed by a whirring noise and a weighted clunk in the ceiling, causing everyone to look up. There was silence for a few seconds before the heavy sound of stone scraping against stone emenated from the hidden room. 

They exchanged glances and all moved to the illusioned wall where Hook and Snow both put their heads through. 

"Books!" Snow's voice echoed out in excitement. 

The back wall of the tiny space had slid to the side to reveal a bookcase that housed several unusual looking objects and a mass of old tomes. Stepping past Hook, Snow took in the curios.  
A few strange looking brass instruments, a purple glass eye on a cushion, a wooden sword, a glittering rose in a bell jar, a shrivelled enbalmed claw, a glowing green key, a blackened heart and an empty glass bottle were spread about on the shelves amongst the books. 

Snow found herself lifting a hand towards the eyeball as she stared at it, mesmerised, being drawn in. It was such a deep eye, the iris seeming like the cone of a vortex, a blackhole of idigo pulling forever inwards to the dark depths. Reaching towards it, her fingers were just about to touch the constantly imploding glass orb when her phone rang and she jumped out of her skin. 

Placing a hand over her heart, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and walked out of the tiny room. 

"Don't look at the-" She started when her phone stopped ringing abrubtly in her hands. "Huh..." 

David had called and hung up. 

"That's odd..." She muttered quietly to herself, lost in anxiety about Emma and Regina when Ruby stepped into the tiny room and she was brought back to the present. 

"Don't look at the eyeball! I think it's cursed!" She warned loudly to Ruby as she called back her husband, whispering to her grandson. "Henry, watch her. The eyeball."

"David, is Emma okay?" Snow asked immediately. "She's been injured again? How bad? David... Okay, we'll finish up here and be on our way. Is Regina okay? Shit... I know, I just hope that's enough while we figure this out. Okay, we'll see you soon. I love you." 

Snow hung up the phone and sighed, her heart heavy as she turned to see Henry, Ruby and Hook all with arms full of old books. 

"These are the ones Gold touched most recently." Ruby said with a sheepish smile, and having heard the end of the conversation, she added. "We can look them over at yours." 

Snow smiled gratefully at her friends.

"Let's go." 

\--------------

Charming hummed as he washed his dishes up after a late lunch. There'd thankfully been no further injuries to the unconscious women so he'd folded away the sofa bed and set up the two sturdier singles. 

He figured setting up two downstairs would enable Hook and Ruby their own beds, and Snow and him would take the double upstairs with Henry on the floor.

As he put his last dish away and hung the tea towel on the oven door to dry, he turned to the apartment and pat his hands on his thighs in a restless beat, looking for something to do. He hated sitting still when there was trouble going down as much as Snow did. 

He didn't like the idea of his wife feeling this unease on a regular basis and was grateful they were equal in their relationship enabling him to relieve some of the restlessness by keeping it even when it came to who went out sleuthing or fighting the baddies during magical predicaments. Regardless of how much it worried him, he wouldn't have it any other way, because he knew Snow felt the same, in every way. 

He made sure Regina and Emma were okay before walking around the apartment a few times and with a resigned sigh, he picked up the true crime novel he was half way through.  
Settling himself in the chair beside Emma, he began reading, glancing up every so often to check the women remained unchanged. 

Charming had been sitting for about ten minutes, when he looked up at his daughter at the end of a chapter and started. Blood was weeping slowly from her ears and nose.

"Shit!"

Jumping up, he grabbed a towel from the stack he'd put on the bedside table for reasons exactly like this and lifted Emma's head gently, pulling the towel awkwardly underneath. Glancing across at Regina, he saw the same slow haemorrhaging and he pulled in a breath, reaching for another towel. He rushed around the bed and lifted her head, doing the same that he'd done with his daughter.  
Pulling the corners of the towel down over Regina's shoulders, he rolled the material and bunched it around her neck and ears to catch the blood flow before quickly returning to Emma's side where he manipulated her towel the same. 

Grabbing another towel, he bunched a corner of it and held the linen against Emma's nose for a few seconds before pulling it away. Bunching a new corner, he repeated the move and, after a third time, was able to see that the bleeding was slowing. 

He moved around the bed to blot at Regina's nose and ears until, after another minute, the bleeding stopped completely and he wiped the residual mess from the brunette's features. 

He straightened his back and looked over at his daughter and his stomach dropped. As he'd been tending to Regina, the blood had continued to ooze out of Emma's nostrils, leaving lines of red running either side of her mouth, over her chin and down the sides of her neck, as well as trickling from her ears.  
The sight of his daughter's face lined with gore made him nauseas and he quickly moved around the bed to wipe her features. 

He stood back with the bloody towel hanging loosely in his hands and felt his heart thumping hard against his chest. Whatever had just happened, it seemed to be over, but all sorts of images of torture sprung into his mind that could have caused such harm and he shook his head as his stomach rolled. 

He acknowledged, with reprimand, that they weren't set up to deal with bloody injuries the way they were, not to mention a whole other range of potential medical needs, and so he made a mental note to acquire some things from the hospital.

He thought of calling Snow, knowing she'd want to be told about the bleeding and he could probably do with some backup in case this got worse. He looked over the women quickly, checking for other signs of injury before looking down at his hands. They were a little bloody from handling the towel so he moved quickly to the kitchen sink and dropped the towel in, washing his hands. 

He returned to Emma's side and pulling out his phone, opened his contacts and called Snow. He was looking at Emma's face as he brought the phone to his ear when, so suddenly, a small gash opened at her hairline and began to run with blood. 

"Goddamn it." He hissed and he fumbled to end the call, throwing the phone on the chair.

Grabbing another towel and blotting at the wound, he looked over at Regina and saw grazes appearing on her knees and ankles beneath her sheer stockings, the nylon growing wet and trickling with blood. He made sure Emma's temple was okay and moved around to dab at the brunette's abrasions. 

He stood back and waited for more, his eyes scanning the women's bodies like some grim and stressful version of spot-the-difference. 

He continued to survey the women on the bed, his heart racing in fearful anticipation when his phone began ringing on the chair and he jumped in fright. Letting out a shaky breath as he calmed himself, he picked it up. 

"Sno-... She is, but it's... a bit intense. She has, but I think she's alright. Uhm... Bleeding from the ears and nose for a bit, a split on her forehead... I know Honey... She's okay at the moment, but maybe you should come by. I think we're gonna need to reassess and grab some things from the hospital to be able to look after them properly here. Yeah, she's about the same as Emma. We'll take care of them Snow. It will be. Okay, see you soon. I love you too"

Hanging up, he sighed. 

He didn't know what to do other than sit back down beside Emma, towel at the ready. Waiting... 

Waiting for his daughter to be tortured in front of his eyes. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to thank everyone for the warmth. <3


	9. Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma waits painfully for her invisible prison to disappear, wanting nothing more than to comfort Regina.

"You're going to make a phenomenal queen." 

 

\--------------

There was nothing for Emma to do but stand helplessly in her invisible cage, her voice hoarse from screaming uselessly at Cora, and her fists bruised from banging violently on her unseen prison. 

Seeing it all happen... Watching in anguish as Cora had stabbed Regina with her vines and murdered Daniel in cold blood... And seeing what that did to Regina... It made every cell in Emma's body vibrate ferociously with her inability to do a single thing to stop it. 

Now, all Emma could do was watch in fear for Regina's wounds as the brunette sobbed open mouthed and lamenting against Daniel's chest, dampening his shirt with a mix of blood and salty tears as she rocked his body with her own. 

Sagging deliriously against the invisible wall, Emma sunk to the floor of her metre square cage. 

"I'm so sorry Regina... I'm so, so sorry..."

She rest her forehead against the wall, as she looked out at the devastating scene with nothing to do but wait while tears streamed silently down her face. 

\--------------

Emma's right leg ached painfully from the cramped position that the small space had her in. It felt like roughly half an hour had passed when she noticed a shimmer run in front of her glazed-over eyes and within a beat the walls dispersed, leaving her to fall heavily forward from where she was leaning with an 'Oof!'. 

Scrambling up, she immediately made to limp to Regina and fell instantly from pins and needles as the blood rushed back to her cramped leg and turned it to jelly. Emma rolled onto her back in exasperation, stretching her leg out. The pain that followed was debilitating as the blood pushed through her veins, her thigh screaming where Rocinante had kicked her, making her whimper and bite the inside of her mouth. She closed her eyes and breathed shakily through her nostrils, waiting for her veins and nerves to calm down, knowing the pain would pass soon. 

After a few minutes, she felt a wave of normality and ease thrum through her leg as her muscles relaxed and blood flow was restored. Scrambling upright again, she hobbled over to Regina and dropped down to her knees on the other side of Daniel's body. 

"Reg-"

"Don't touch us!" Regina spat, her head snapping up from Daniel's blood-covered torso to throw acid with her eyes. 

"I- I'm... " Emma stammered, immediately pulling back from Regina, shocked by her sudden venom. "I'm sorry... Regina... I'm so sorry. For all of this..."

"Again with the sorry, Emma! I don't want it! I don't want your pity!" Regina threw at her. 

"It's not pity... It's sadne-"

"I don't want it Emma!" Regina said forcefully, sitting up, her hands clutching protectively over Daniel as if she feared Emma would suddenly whisk his body away from her. 

She looked up at Emma, her chest wounds still seeping blood angrily. 

"I don't have the energy to carry whatever weight you feel from this aswell. Just leave me alone! Just leave me to be however the hell I need to be!" 

Regina's tears renewed as she looked down into Daniel's lifeless features and she leant forward over him again in despair, burying her face in his shirt. 

Emma sat, a little stunned by Regina's anger as her heart griped painfully. She didn't know what she'd done wrong. Maybe she hadn't done anything, maybe Regina was simply grieving and didn't mean to be so harsh. Emma didn't know what Regina needed most; to be comforted, to be removed from Daniel or to be allowed to grieve in peace...  
Regina had asked to be left alone and Emma as sure as hell wasn't about to start pressuring her into anything, especially after her autonomy was just taken from her so cruelly. So Emma trusted that Regina knew what she needed and nodded silently above Regina's head before standing up awkwardly and limping across to the other side of the stall run. Leaning her back against the wall, she slid to the floor and stretched her injured leg out on the cobblestones. 

She simply sat and waited some more, her heart aching. Silently and patiently watching over Regina, allowing her to grieve. 

\--------------

Emma's head lolled and she lifted it back up with a snap, she didn't have a clue how long she'd been nodding for, it was so difficult to gauge time in this place. Blinking alertness back into her exhausted mind as she took in the stables, her eyes focused on Regina who was now slumped over Daniel, her skin looking pale and sweaty. 

Emma pushed off the wall, heart skipping a little with worry for Regina's state, and managed herself up. Limping over to the brunette and moving around Daniel's body so she wouldn't be talking over his corpse, she sunk painfully to the floor next to Regina.

"...Regina?" Emma asked nervously, touching her shoulder gently, letting out a breath she hadn't been aware she'd been holding as Regina stirred.

"Mhrmm?" Regina rumbled dully into the fabric of Daniel's shirt. 

"...You are exhausted Regina... Please let me look at your wounds..."

There was stillness for a few seconds before Regina shifted and pushed herself up weakly, turning her head to look at the blonde. 

Emma's heart wrung for the mayor. Regina's face was emotionless and a billboard for fatigue. Her skin light and clammy, her eyes bloodshot and raw. She looked utterly spent. Emma could tell that Regina wasn't completely in the room, she was in a daze and not really seeing Emma at all. Her brown eyes were glazed over, looking out past the blonde before her red eyelids fluttered closed and she swayed slightly where she sat.

Emma hesitated, unsure if that was meant as an indication of consent, but after Regina's angry words earlier, Emma didn't want to risk touching her without checking. 

"May I?" Emma asked softly. 

Regina kept her eyes closed and gave a shallow nod, turning her torso away from Daniel, towards the sheriff.

Three large reddy-brown blotches of blood were partially dried into Regina's white blouse and Emma's hands shook slightly as she gently unbottoned the top botton of the brunette's deep cut shirt. Her whole body reacted to being this close to the brunette and Emma was not unaware that she had fantasised about this action in different circumstances. She felt the familiar shame settle within her and deliberately kept her eyes from her Regina's cleavage, out of respect, as she pulled the two blouse lapels apart.

Emma sucked in a breath. Three, one inch-wide puncture wounds were splayed across her chest. They looked nasty, but as Emma gently touched the bruising skin around them, inspecting them closer, she was able to see that they were superficial wounds. All three vines had hit Regina's ribs, stopping them from being able to penetrate any further, saving her lungs and heart. They were weeping slightly but mostly dry and Emma let out a shaky breath of relief. She knew Regina had lost blood and was exhausted, but with no damage to her organs, she was in no immediate danger and purely needed rest.

Emma delicately removed her fingers from Regina's skin and rebuttoned her top before reaching for her wrist and feeling her pulse. It was soft and rapid, running on adrenaline.

"Would you be willing to lie down and rest in one of the stalls?" Emma asked cautiously.

Regina let her eyes open and looked at Emma, frowning slightly as if trying to understand what she'd been asked. Opening her mouth, frowning deeper and then closing her mouth, she dropped her gaze and looked down at Daniel. Tears immediately filled her brown eyes and she brought her head up to bore into Emma's green, her stare desperate and pleading, locking on as if holding the blonde's gaze was keeping her upright.  
Emma understood immediately what Regina was asking of her. 

Regina clearly wasn't alright and Emma was recognising signs of 'checking out'. The brunette was simply 'offline'. Dissociation was a common response to trauma and Emma knew the haze and disconnection that Regina would be feeling. She wouldn't be able to think clearly enough to make decisions that were informed or self caring. She was just too overwhelmed and numb from everything that she'd just experienced in the stables that, through her gaze, she was trying to communicate to Emma that she couldn't be asked to be in control of herself right now. Emma knew that headspace and knew what she'd always felt she needed when it was all too much...

"Can I take care of you for a bit? So you don't have to think?" Emma asked gently, offering to take over for her, to 'carry' her and look after her, because Regina was unable to right now.  
"I promise to be gentle and respectful. I just want to take us somewhere where you can rest." 

Regina's eyes swam with tears and delirium before fluttering closed, her eyelids forcing the tears to escape down her cheeks as she nodded, extreme gratitude floating somewhere at the outskirts of her mind for Emma's comprehension of what she needed.

Emma felt her heart warm that Regina was trusting her to hold her in such a vulnerable state, yet at the same time, she was heavy with her sorrow for all the torment that brought the brunette to this condition. 

Emma looked Regina in the eyes as deeply as she could with the mayor's current level of attention and nodded stalwartly, indicating her understanding before struggling up, standing with a wince. 

She leant down and gently helped Regina up too, pushing past the pain in her leg to aid her friend in standing. Wrapping an arm around Regina's waste, she guided her down the stables to a stall near the end. Peering over the gate and seeing it empty aside from a large pile of hay, she squeezed Regina lightly in comfort before letting go and speaking calmly. 

"I'll be right back, I'm just grabbing something from over there."

Regina just nodded, her body hanging in exhaustion where she stood as she stared blankly into the stall. 

Emma hobbled across the stables to a pigeon-hole set of shelves that held a variety of tack and pulled out two thick horse blankets. Returning to Regina, she unbolted the gate and swung it open, guiding the brunette inside.

As Emma closed the gate behind them she felt her anxiety spike with the thought that shutting the gate was utterly pointless as they could be tipped upside-down or met with a traumatic memory at any time. That they could experience anyone or anything at any moment and they were essentially powerless to avoid it. Even right now. That the blankets in her arms to provide them comfort and warmth for their bodies, that weren't even really there, could vanish any second, leaving them cold and shivering. That the roof could be torn from the ceiling or the floor dropped out from beneath them.  
Swallowing dryly, Emma pushed the terrifying thoughts aside, focusing on bunching the hay together, deciding to hold onto the thought that even if more was coming, she was going to at least give Regina as much rest and feeling of privacy and normality as she could. 

Straightening, satisfied with the density and size of her hay pile, she threw a blanket over it, moulding a higher section for a pillow and limping around the whole mass as she tucked the edges under the makeshift mattress. 

Turning to the spaced brunette, Emma delicately coaxed her over to the nest, slowly helping her down onto it before draping the other blanket over her. 

Emma was moving around the bed towards the wall intending to sit against it to take watch, when Regina spoke quietly, unmoving, from under the blankets and the blonde stopped and turned. 

"Please... Please stay..." 

Emma was surprised by Regina's first words since she'd dozed off. 

"I wasn't leaving, I promise. I'm going to be right here, against the wall. I won't leave you."

Regina was quiet for a while and Emma, only able to see the top of her head beneath the blanket, was about to continue towards the wall when the brunette's voice emenated feebly again. 

"Stay with me... in here... Please, Emma..." 

Emma felt her heart pang for the vulnerability and fragility in Regina's tone, knowing how much it meant for her to ask. At the back of her mind she was aware of her longing to desperately wrap her arms around Regina and make her feel the safety and comfort and love that she'd seen in Regina when she'd been in Daniel's arms.

Emma bit her lip, not wanting her own feelings to sit above Regina's needs and wanting her to feel safe and authentic about such a thing above all else. 

"...Lay with you? If you're sure you'll be comfortable?" Emma asked softly.

Regina's head nodded under the blankets and  
Emma smiled at the mayor's adorable movement, before limping over to the hay bed and lifting the blanket, carefully lowering herself down next to Regina. 

As soon as Emma let go of the blanket, Regina turned her body into Emma's and tucked her head into the blonde's chest, beginning to cry. 

"Hey. Shhhhhh shh shhhh. It's okay..." Emma comforted, pulling Regina's foetal formation tightly against her, stroking her hair and back slowly. "Just rest for now... You're okay." 

She was mindful that the brunette was exhausted and needed, above all else at this moment, the rest that only unconsciousness could bring her.

Regina took a breath and let out a bone-weary sigh, her tears drying out as she let her body sag and within moments sleep had stolen her away. 

Emma's mind wracked over how much her friend had just re-experienced as she ran soothing lines down the mayor's arm. Regina had just witnessed two very traumatic deaths of those she loved... She wasn't surprised that Regina was dissociating. This place was so cruel.

Emma found herself being so suddenly grateful that she had been brought here with Regina. If she hadn't tackled the Hrïş°mhiëř, Regina would be going through these things alone, she'd be so vulnerable, especially now. Maybe she'd still be out in the stables collapsed over Daniel, open to attack or maybe she'd be experiencing something else entirely...

Emma shivered and pulled the sleeping Regina tighter against her in a motion of protection. With a sigh, she realised how comfortable the hay was in comparison to the cement floor, she hadn't noticed how much their weary bodies had needed this luxury. Her muscles, so tightly held only moments before, were now quickly unravelling and relaxing into the warmth of the hay, the blankets and the brunette's body tucked against her. 

Emma was being pulled swiftly into unconsciousness and she only had a few moments to feel her heart delighting in their closeness, warmth flooding her chest that she was able to comfort Regina in the way she had wanted to; arms wrapped around her in safety, before her eyelids grew too weighted and sleep took her away too. 

\--------------

Emma felt movement against her body, rousing her from her sleep and she immediately tensed. Preparing for an attack, her eyes snapped open and she clutched at the body moving against hers just as Regina's smell washed over her and she recognised their concrete prison.

Regina made a small noise of suprise at the tightness of the blonde's grip and Emma realised that the mayor had simply shifted in her arms to cry softly into her chest. The sheriff let out a long shaky breath as memories of laying on the hay bed with Regina jumped to her attention and she allowed her hands and nervous system to relax.

"Sorry, I wasn't sure what was happening for a second." Emma said soothingly, rubbing slow circles of comfort on Regina's back, the drowsiness of sleep ebbing away as she woke fully. 

The hay bed had vanished and Emma lay on her left side with Regina curled into her, the brunette's head tucked beneath her chin as she wept into her breast, the cold concrete hard against their bones. Emma's bare arms were covered in goosebumps in the cool air of their prison and she could see her red jacket laying longingly on the floor on the other side of the room. So much of her body was aching and uncomfortable and it was a small mercy that her injured right side was facing upwards. Her neck was stiff and sore and her wrists hurt as she smoothed her hands against Regina in solace. She could feel her knee grazes stinging and her shoulder burned, her thigh throbbing the most painfully as it cramped against the chill. She felt utterly exhausted, like they'd only had a few hours sleep. But as rough as Emma felt, she knew that Regina would be feeling equally as broken, if not worse for the mental wounds she was sporting aswell. 

Emma's mind grew concerned for how Regina was doing. The mayor was quiet outside of the small noises she made as she cried and Emma was going over her memories of the events from the stables, about to ask her if she was okay when Regina mumbled into Emma's singlet.

"I'm so sorry I snapped at you..." 

"Hey, shhhhh. Don't even worry about it" Emma soothed, wrapping her arms tighter around Regina in warmth. 

"No. That was so unfair of me. You didn't deserve that..." 

"It's okay Regina, honestly. Please don't feel bad. I get it." Emma said into the air above Regina's head. 

"I'm still so sorry for what I said." Regina apologised, her breath warming Emma's chest. "I know you don't pity me. My mother had just said such demeaning things and then Dani-..." She quietened, swallowing as new tears wet her voice. "I just felt so small and attacked... And I... I never know how to be when I feel that way... My anger... It came from old, protective habits. I didn't want you to leave. I'm honestly so grateful that you are with me..."

"Really, Regina, it's okay." Emma said as she rubbed circles over Regina's back again and rest her chin against the brunette's hair as she thought back to the stables. "You're allowed to be however you need to be with me. You've gone through so much in life and so much in here... I can only imagine how overwhelmed and exhausted you are. It's not even a thing, you snapping. I know who you are at heart. It's why I stuck around and sat by you."

Regina opened her mouth, but closed it after a few moments of hesitation. Her tears drying, she was silent for a while and Emma could feel her chewing on her lip against her chest, wanting to ask something. 

"What is it?" Emma asked gently, hoping to coax out whatever was bothering Regina. 

Regina stilled and was quiet for another moment before asking softly into Emma's chest. 

"Why didn't you earlier?... Stick around I mean?"

"What do you mean? Earlier when?" Emma asked, her brow furrowing above the brunette's head as she tried to think of a time they'd been apart. "It took me a bit to get through the catflap but I came looking for you in the stables as soon as I did."

"I meant-..." Regina quietened. "Never mind." 

"What were you going to say?" 

"How did you get through the catflap?" Regina asked, changing the subject but also genuinely curious.

"With great difficulty and strength of determination." Emma chuckled darkly before sobering and asking seriously. "What were you talking about, me not sticking around?" 

Regina sighed. 

"When you told me to go to Daniel, why did you leave? I came looking for you. To meet him, how I remembered him. But you'd gone." 

Regina wondered if, whatever the reason, it may have had something to do with Emma feeling not so platonic towards her and she hoped, if anything, it was because Emma was a little intimidated by Daniel for jealousy. Regina took a deep breath as she stared at the light freckles littering Emma's chest and asked bravely. 

"Was it to do with Daniel and I being romantic?" 

"Regina, I was there the whole time..." 

Regina untucked her head from the blonde and pulled back to look quizzically at Emma, their eyes meeting for the first time since waking. 

"What?"

Emma narrowed her eyes shrewdly at Regina laying in her arms and a tiny bell of acknowledgement rang at the back of her mind with something Regina had said. 

"Why do you ask if I left because you and Daniel were romantic?" Emma asked quietly. 

"What do you mean you were there the whole time?!" Regina countered demandingly.

"I was there, in the stable run, with you. I was in a stupid invisible cage like th-" 

"What?!" Regina exclaimed, her brown eyes boring incredulously into Emma's. 

Emma swallowed dryly and nodded. 

Regina gaped at her and Emma sighed, squeezing her gently before letting go and shifting to sit up. This was going to be a deeper conversation and she wanted to face Regina easily, but she immediately pined the loss of the mayor's closeness and warmth as she pushed herself up. 

Emma winced as her shoulder smarted followed by a sharp intake of breath with the pain that shot through her right thigh. As she stretched her leg out gingerly, Regina pushed up off the ground, tucking her legs to one side beneath her, grimacing as she settled and looked painfully down at her chest wounds. 

"Can I look?" Emma worried as she saw Regina's discomfort and shuffled closer. 

"Mmhm." Regina mumbled, pulling aside her shirt lapel, not looking up as she inspected the punctures herself.

Emma leant forward and delicately touched the skin around the raw holes, examining how slowly they were knitting closed. Pressing into the bruised skin around one of the wounds above Regina's breast, Emma felt the bone shift sickeningly beneath her fingers and the brunette let out a cry of pain, recoiling from Emma's hand. 

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." Emma said quickly, placing a hand on Regina's arm in apology. "I was checking, but I didn't actually think..." Emma looked down at the site she'd been inspecting. "Can I just make sure? I need to take a better look. I'm so sorry, it'll hurt..." 

"What is it?" Regina asked Emma, knowing something was wrong but hesitant to feel that pain again. 

"I think one of your ribs is broken." Emma admitted apologetically.

Regina sighed. 

"I'm not surprised. It wouldn't be the first time my mother has cracked a rib of mine." Regina said tiredly, faintly recognising the constricted feeling in her chest. "What I wouldn't give for her healing now though..." Leaning forward stiffly, preparing herself for the pain, she looked expectantly at Emma. 

"Go on then." She said shortly. 

Emma raised her hands and anxiously unbuttoned Regina's blouse. It was harder to do this time with the brunette looking at her impatiently, her nerves betraying her fingers as she fumbled with the button until the material came loose and exposed the mayor's breast. Emma unintentionally glanced down at Regina's cleavage, her olive skin sitting so stunningly in a white lace bra. Regina was so beautiful...

Emma's heart flipped with emotion. Attraction, lust, shame and sadness flittered through her chest and she disparaged herself internally for stealing looks that weren't hers to take. 

Focusing on checking Regina, she placed a hand around the brunette's back, bracing her and, with the other, began touching gingerly at the spot she'd felt the shift. Emma started with a slight pressure, gradually adding more force until she cringed and pulled away quickly when she felt the crunching of bone against bone. Regina grunted and tilted forward slightly as Emma had found the break again, her eyes dropping closed, she breathed shakily through her nostrils at the grinding pain. 

"Yeah, shit..." Emma huffed. "Lemme just check the others." 

Regina stiffened, sucking in a breath, bracing herself for more pain as Emma placed force around her other wounds. 

"I think it's just the one that's br-" Emma started, as she checked the last wound, when another rib made the same disturbing grinding movement and Regina cried out.

"Ahhhh!" 

"Fuck! I'm sorry." Emma offered, removing her hands and rubbing them down Regina's arms in comfort. "You've got two broken ribs..." 

"No shit!" Regina gasped at Emma.

"Hey..." Emma said, taken aback by her anger. 

"I'm sorry." Regina apologised immediately, her shoulders dropping. "I'm just in pain... And tired. I didn't mean to snap." 

"It's okay. I get it." Emma said sympathetically, squeezing her hands where they sat on the mayor's upper arms in support. "How's your breathing?" 

"A little bit painful." Regina sighed honestly as she moved to do her blouse up. "But I had thought it was just from bruising. I've had worse for broken ribs." 

Emma nodded in acceptance and a quiet fell over them as they both reflected on the regularity and frequency of physical injuries in their lives. 

Emma took in Regina properly in the silence and, as her eyes raked over the brunette, she felt her chest well and her eyes to become watery with emotion. Regina was littered with bruises and cuts, grazes and wounds. Her wrists and neck mottled reddy-brown, the underside of her chin a dark blue, the cut on her cheek knitting in a pink line, ripped stockings framing the scabbing grazes on her knees and ankle bones, the laceration along her midsection an angry red, the raw holes in her chest bruising across her skin and the brown dried blood painting her white blouse...  
She looked like she'd been through a war. 

"Shit Regina... You look..." Emma whispered as tears formed and threatened to spill from her eyes. "I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you..." 

"Emma..." Regina said quietly, it all becoming too much to think about. 

"I was there. I just-... As you left the stall to go find Daniel..." Emma finally explained, her voice shaking. "I was caged into a box just outside the gate by some stupid, goddamn, invisible, fucking walls. Just like the one in here when younger me was in this room. I could see out to you and hear everything that was being said, but no matter how much I banged on the walls and yelled, no one reacted. No one knew I was there." 

Emma held her hands up to the mayor, showing the blossoming bruises on the outsides of her palms from where she'd beat at her invisible prism.

Regina lifted her hands to cradle Emma's as she took in the marbled bruises, trying to process this new information. 

"I hated it so damn much!" Emma let out in anguish as she recalled the memory of Regina calling out for her before Cora arrived and her tears finally spilled down her face. "Not being able to answer you... To help you. For me to be there, but unable to save you from any of that... I was so fucking useless!"

Emma's tears fell angrily to soak into the denim of her jeans as she dropped her head in frustration and defeat.  
Regina slid her hands around Emma's gently, lowering them to her lap where she continued to hold them and Emma lifted her head in the silence to see that Regina had tears in her eyes aswell.

"Regina..." Emma said apologetically, feeling so guilty for being mindless with her words when Regina had just gone through so much worse.

"I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry that you went through that. You lost the man you loved and it was by your own mother's hand... You were only nineteen and your mum murdered him in front of you... That's so -... It's unbelievably fucked up and cruel and I... I can't imagine how you ever processed or reconciled with any of that..."

Regina felt the salty droplets sliding down her face and her heart tremored painfully as she recalled how useless she had felt all those years ago. 

"I couldn't do anything... When I was younger." Regina said weakly, her eyes unfocused through her tears. "It all happened so fast and I... I-... Mother, was always cruel, but I just didn't see it coming and I didn't have magic then, there was nothing I could do against her power. I thought she was going to let us go, I thought she understood and it seemed like she had accepted us... I thought we were free and then she-... She just-... He was suddenly there... on the ground... dead, and I... I couldn't do anything! I did nothing to stop it, I just let it happen... I couldn't do anything..."

Regina took in a gasping breath as fresh tears flooded from her eyes. 

"I couldn't do anything!" She rasped, looking desperately between Emma's eyes. 

"Regina..." Emma whispered wetly, her heart aching as she shuffled closer and wrapped her arms around the brunette in the most encompassing hug she could give. "You were so brave..."

Emma's words caused Regina's resolve to break and she sobbed into the sheriff's shoulder, her cries gradually becoming louder and more mournful to the point that her torso was wracking against Emma as she took in shuddering breaths. 

Emma could only clutch Regina as the brunette's heartache soaked into her singlet, holding her, simply to allow her to grieve as loudly and as genuinely as she needed to. 

Emma felt such conflicting emotions towards Cora, she just couldn't understand how she could have stolen Daniel's life the way she did... And to have done it in front of her own daughter who was in love with him. It was... cruel. There was no other word for it in Emma's head.  
It was just simply... cruel. 

Emma had experienced Cora's cruelty when she had watched Snow grieve over the murder of her childhood mother-figure, maid and old friend; Johanna. And again when Snow found out that Cora had poisoned Queen Eva, Emma's grandmother.  
She knew that Regina had forgiven her mother for all that had transpired between them over the years and worlds. They'd both truly come to an understanding of one another in the Underworld and with that; they had found love and peace.

But seeing her murder Daniel earlier... 

Emma knew Cora didn't have a heart, that she had believed it a weakness and removed it. The blonde wondered if maybe that was what allowed Cora to kill so easily.  
But then again Regina had murdered people too, maybe even more than her mother, and from what Emma had heard, she'd done so with relish...  
And Regina had a heart during them all... 

The memory of Graham falling dead in her arms in the sheriff's station pushed painfully to Emma's attention and she shook it away, swallowing dryly.

There she was, thinking so uncompromisingly about Cora, when she knew it was never that simple. It was hard to push past the nurtured programming that western society had given her and to remind herself that actions like Cora's and Regina's didn't come from evil... It was never so black and white. Actions like that come from misinterpretation, misguidance, ignorance, fear, pain, trauma... 

Emma had forgiven Regina for killing Graham. So if Regina had forgiven her mother, then Emma could too.  
That was her job, in this hell; To stand by her friend and not let all the work that Regina had put in to unravel her pain and find forgiveness to be taken away now, not when the brunette had fought so damn hard everyday to change such ingrained mechanisms.  
Emma felt, again, the extreme relief that she was here for Regina, that she was by her side through all of these re-experiences to remind her of why the fight is worth it. 

Regina's sobs had subsided to sniffles and her body had sagged against the blonde's in exhaustion. Emma started rubbing slow circles on the brunette's back again and a few more minutes passed before Regina spoke quietly into Emma's shoulder. 

"God, he felt so real..." The brunette whispered, wiping the dampness from her face with her hands before speaking to Emma. "Thank you..." 

"Always." Emma whispered back earnestly, squeezing Regina gently in their embrace, absently noting a similarity with the way she'd seen Daniel hold Regina in comfort in the stables. 

Regina turned her head on Emma's shoulder so that she was looking across the blonde's collarbone to the mottled bruises that spread over her damaged shoulder and upper arm. 

Regina sighed in exhaustion at it all. 

She was too tired to think about Daniel any more and she allowed her mind to wander to all the injuries and fights they'd fought in the past. They'd been through some tough and mind-numbing experiences together... Some seeming too fantastical to be real, but Regina knew that if they didn't get out of here soon, this one would definitely be taking the cake. 

Regina watched Emma's chest rising and falling with each breath and she meditated on their closeness, noting how easy and comfortable being this intimate with the blonde was. Over the years they'd become so close and Regina was not unaware what her heart desired with Emma.  
They'd always gravitated towards each other and been a little more tactile in their friendship than with other people. It was the sheriff's automatic tendencies to grab her hand or stand protectively against her or pick her up after an attack or wrap her in a hug that Regina loved. She felt so safe and warm in Emma's arms and it was these intimate touches that Regina thirsted for. 

When they'd first met, Regina had thought Emma was a threat to her happiness, but in all reality, she'd never been happy in Storybrook until the blonde had arrived and she hadn't realised how much she'd been craving the challenge that Emma gave her. Having someone that respected her but also argued and talked back to her was, surprisingly, a very arousing thing. Regina had not felt that way in a long time and the spark of an opponent had caused an attraction and lust she'd not experienced with Daniel or any other man in the Enchanted Forest, let alone a woman... Regina had found herself so completely and utterly turned on by Emma. Her entire nervous system responded when the blonde was near and she had felt so alive for the first time in twenty eight years. Not to mention that the heated fantasies centralising the sheriff that Regina had indulged in in private had given her the best orgasms of her life. But after a while, as they'd become friends, she'd begun to feel more for Emma and stemmed pleasuring herself to images of wrestling a chainsaw out of the blonde's hands beneath her apple tree, out of a feeling of needing to show her respect. Regina still wanted to touch Emma in all the ways that she had fantasised, but as time passed, it was clear that Emma wasn't interested in her that way. And she'd found it especially hard to interact with the blonde in a normal way knowing that, on a regular basis, she'd touched herself the night before to the figment of Emma fucking her boneless in the hospital supply closet.

Electricity roared through Regina's nerves as images of those fantasies claimed her attention. Emma's hand wrapped deliciously around her neck as she was pushed into a locker, the blonde's face so close and full of fire before she was kissed passionately and roughly, Emma's body hard against hers, hips rolling into hers, a hand slipping between them to press into her cunt... 

Regina took in a shaky breath as she felt desire rush from inside herself and pool in her underwear. Stiffening, she came crashing back to the present, suddenly concious of her body's excitement after being so lost in her erotic daydream.  
Emma's chest was still rising and falling steadily where they sat embraced, her white singlet hugging tightly against her breast, the hardness of her nipples stealing the mayor's attention in the cool prison air. Regina licked her lips as she felt a twinge of lust in her belly followed quickly by guilt for allowing herself to get so caught up in fantasy, feeling dishonest for thinking of Emma so intimately when the blonde was so physically close and so selflessly offering her platonic comfort. 

Regina sighed, mentally pushing her arousal away. She didn't deserve the goodness of Emma.

"I couldn't do this if you weren't here..." Regina whispered, her stomach knotting at the thought of being without her. 

"Hmmm..."

Emma had been lost in her own thoughts about the loss Regina had just re-experienced and the love she'd witnessed between the brunette and her true love.  
She'd only just begun to get a vibe since they landed in this hell that Regina might think of her with more than friendship in mind.  
A handful of moments since they'd been taken (backed by many others in Storybrooke before this) had been making Emma question the closeness of their relationship. She had questioned whether the brunette wanted to kiss her on a few occasions and she was sure she'd caught Regina stealing looks at her body with not so innocent eyes. But after seeing the way Regina had melted into Daniel... Seeing that level of love... Her heart had dropped and shied deep inside her chest as Emma had realised she'd been projecting all those romantic looks and that Regina saw her as nothing more than a friend. 

The loss that Regina must have felt when her mother had murdered Daniel... Having seen the brunette's distress, even now, when she'd known what was coming and had over thirty years to process it, Emma couldn't imagine how she'd feel or be if she ever lost the people she loved. The idea of losing Regina or Henry... or Snow or Charming... The thought caused her such grief and paralysed her with so much fear, that it took her a moment to process that Regina had spoken to her.

"Oh... Regina, you have no idea how strong you are. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else than fighting by your side through this, it's my honour. But you would go through ten times this and come out of it a Queen. You're a powerhouse of resilience." Emma said earnestly before smirking. "All puns intended."

Regina couldn't accept such a statement but still chuckled at Emma's lameness and she lifted her head from the blonde's shoulder. Looking at Emma, their faces so close after just thinking about her in fantasy, hyper-aware of her underwear being damp... Regina felt the draw to press her lips to the sheriff's, so she pulled away and looked down. Her heart ached so painfully from all the torment in the last few hours, that she couldn't tease it with indulgences of what would never be aswell. 

"Thank you so much, for being here... Truly." Regina said softly to her own lap, thinking about how Emma had guided her to a warm, safe space in the stables and made her a bed. "Thank you, earlier, for knowing that I wasn't really able to think properly and for showing me such respect... And for holding me when I needed it..."

Tears sprung in her brown eyes again and before Emma could to respond, Regina looked up at the ceiling, blinking her watery emotion away. 

"Ugh! I'm too exhausted for all this crying." She said in exasperation at her tears, raising a hand to her temple as a headache shot above her eyes. Lowering her gaze to Emma and focusing on her bruises, she commented, needing to keep her mind busy with less emotional things. "Your shoulder has come out colourfully." 

Emma didn't miss the change in subject as Regina moved her hands to lightly touch her contused skin, but she blinked down at her shoulder for the first time since climbing through the catflap and any thought to pursue the previous conversation disappeared from the blonde's mind. 

"Huh..." She let out in surprise. She hadn't been expecting the impressive array of colours that was awash over her swollen shoulder and down the inside of her upper arm. 

"Does it hurt?" Regina asked gingerly. 

"Yeh, I guess..." Emma admitted in wonder as she lifted her arm slightly and winced at the ache. "I mean it's sore and all, but I'm actually relieved how little it's been a nuisance." 

She pulled her good arm in from where it had been holding Regina and tucked it across her body to poke gently at the rainbowed skin. 

"It definitely doesn't bother me as much as these bruises make it look." She admitted earnestly. 

"Well... We do know you have a high pain tolerance." Regina conceded with gentle amusement. 

"Yeh, maybe." Emma chuckled sheepishly, not unaware how much she was downplaying her thigh injury. She shivered as she mentally scanned her body for other aches and pains. 

"Here..." Regina said, having seen the goosebumps on Emma's arm as well as other signs of the cold earlier. Getting up gingerly she walked across the room to fetch the blonde's jacket.

"Oh... Thank you." Emma said as Regina stooped to pick up the red leather.

Regina walked back with a smile and handed it down to Emma, hesitating about sitting. She looked around the empty room. 

"Would you mind if we sat against the wall?" Regina asked, trying to stretch but groaning and wincing at the pain that opening her arms wide caused her. "My body aches too much to keep holding myself up like that..."

"Ugh, thank god! Yes please." Emma let out in relief as she shrugged her jacket on delicately, craving the support the wall would give her aswell. 

Regina offered her hand to help the sheriff up and frowned in concern as Emma grimaced and struggled to push herself off the floor. Stumbling a little as Emma wrestled herself up, Regina stepped closer and quickly leant down to grab the blonde's waist as she stood firmly, successfully pulling the sheriff to standing. 

"Thanks." Emma huffed gratefully. 

Regina eyed Emma carefully as she righted herself and when she limped a little favouring her right leg, the brunette let out a gasp of realisation. 

"Oh my god, Emma, your thigh! I completely forgot! Are you okay?" 

"Yeah, it's fine. Just sore." Emma answered before smiling unconvincingly at Regina and hobbling towards the nearest corner. 

"Emma..." Regina said deliberately, equal parts exasperation and concern evident in her voice. 

Emma met the wall a few feet from the corner and turned her back to it. Leaning on it she slid down it and stretched her leg out carefully. Closing her eyes, she relaxed against the concrete. 

Regina walked over to the stubborn sheriff and knelt next to her patiently. 

"Will you please let me look at your thigh?"

Emma kept her eyelids closed for a beat before opening one eye to peer out at Regina. Closing it, she let out a sigh of resignation, it was probably a good idea to check her thigh...  
She opened her eyes and looked down at her lap. Lifting her singlet to sit above the top of her jeans, she unbuttoned her fly and unzipped. Pushing her upper back against the wall she lifted her hips off the ground, her shoulder panging, causing her to wince as she pushed the denim off her hips and down to her knees, letting out a gasp of pain as the tight material passed her thigh. 

"Ahhh!"

"Oh my god, Emma..." Regina whispered. 

Emma lowered her hips to the floor gingerly and looked down at her thigh. 

"Well, fuck." Emma deadpanned. 

It looked worse than her shoulder. 

A broken, pinky-red outline of Rocinante's hoof was framed by purple-black that blot thickly over the entire front and outside of her thigh, fringed with green and yellow tinges. 

Regina touched Emma's thigh delicately, lowering her head to look closely as she took in the heavy purples and greeny yellows. It seemed almost comical in a macabre way that a rough hoof shape was visible within the bruise...

As she marvelled at the colours in the contusion something caught Regina's eye at the top of Emma's thigh. Her head low, she was able to look up discretely at the seven thin scars running across the blonde's skin. She moved her eyes across to Emma's left leg and took in two more just below the hip bend. Her heart began beating notably against her chest and she recieved the uncomfortable feeling that she'd seen something she wasn't supposed to see.  
As Regina blinked back again to the marks on the blonde's injured leg, she realised her silence and looked back to the bruise, carefully touching the lighter parts of the mottled skin. 

"This doesn't look good Emma." Regina worried, a little taken back by the scars she'd seen. "I mean... I doubt you would be able to sit still let alone stand if your femur had been broken... Which is a mercy. But I think your muscle is torn... Which is less of a mercy."

Emma took a deep breath and tilted her head back to gaze up at the ceiling as she let out a long sigh. 

"Hhhhhhhhyyup-ahh. That'd be right." 

Regina looked up at Emma quizzically. 

"What do you mean?" 

Emma blinked at the roof a few times in thought before lowering her head to look at Regina. 

"Well all the injuries we've gotten, they seem just a little too lucky, don't they?" Emma suggested, frowning at Regina. "Like, they've been enough to cause us constant pain, discomfort and difficulty, but nothing more than we can handle..."

A look of comprehension dawned on Regina, spurring Emma to continue. 

"Like, torture wise, we could have suffered a whole lot worse... Your stomach cut could have been so much deeper and hit organs and instead of a dislocated shoulder, my arms could have actually been torn off by Cora if those vines had pulled harder... And if your chest punctures had hit your lungs, you'd have died without medical attention... My thigh, a broken thigh bone would debilitate me completely. Every injury we've recieved has allowed us to keep going to some extent..."

"They're not life threatening, when they so easily could have been..." Regina finished for Emma in a whisper, looking down at the blonde's thigh then adding. "But why?" 

The two were silent for a moment as they both reflected on the possible motives for the Hrïş°mhiëř wounding them only superficially followed by all the ensuing ramifications for those motives.

Emma shivered and lifted her hips, pulling her jeans up with a grimace and doing them up before lowering her singlet over the top. 

"I think that thing wants to keep us in here for as long as possible." Emma said tiredly. "It has no investment for us to die... But the thing I can't work out is, I dunno if we're not severely injured because it's just getting warmed up or it's actually showing us leniency for some reason..."

"Maybe it's hurting us just enough because it wants us to believe we still have the cruel option of fighting back." Regina offered. "Hope can be a torture of its very own..." 

Emma swallowed. 

"Maybe it can't maim us fatally?" She suggested. "Maybe if our conciousness believes we die in here, then we actually will... Freedom in death?"

"I don't think it's that easy..." Regina said thoughtfully. 

"Easy..." Emma repeated Regina's choice of word before falling quiet, her brain beginning to ache with holding onto too many profound thoughts and trying to work out if they fit within the abstruse rules of survival in this place. 

Regina got up from where she was still kneeling and stepped over Emma's legs towards the corner, sitting with her back against the perpendicular wall. 

"It would never be easy..." Regina said quietly, as she settled. "A decision like that... It would only ever be if there was-... If there was nothing else left..." 

Both women fell silent again with the heavy thoughts of such an eventuality. 

After a while, Emma began to feel her exhaustion pulling her mind towards sleep when new thoughts occurred to her:  
Why did they need sleep if they were just conciousness? How did they sleep if their bodies were already asleep? How were they okay without food if they weren't without sleep? 

Emma had been so lost in ideations about the inconceivable complexities of falling asleep in a body that wasn't really here with a conciousness that was already unconscious..., that it took her a moment to arrange her thoughts and realise that Regina had said something. 

"Sorry?" Emma asked distractedly. 

"Are you hungry?" Regina repeated. 

"Huh... I was just thinking about that." Emma mumbled, turning to look at the brunette sitting against the corner's other wall, impressed by their synchronicity. 

"We haven't eaten or drunk in... what feels like two or three days." Regina said, looking to the blonde, concerned. 

"Do we need food?" Emma asked. 

"I don't know... I suppose not. We would have needed it by now." Regina volunteered. 

"Yeah, I guess." Emma agreed "Like, I'm hungry, but I mean, I'm always hungry and I'd have gotten shaky if we did need it..." 

"I'm hungry..." Regina thought out loud. "It's been sitting there constantly, like a background ache. It hasn't been pressing when we've been so distracted by everything that's been going on, but it's been there." 

"We haven't had any water either." Emma mentioned. "Why haven't we needed nourishment but needed sleep? Why do we need sleep of all things if our bodies aren't really here?" 

"I guess mental exhaustion is still a thing even if our bodies aren't actually experiencing all the pain..." Regina offered. 

"Hmmm..." Emma hummed in contemplation.

They were quiet with their own thoughts when Regina spoke absently.

"It's been kind of nice..."

"What?" Emma asked, confused. 

Regina hesitated. 

"Being hungry. It's kinda familiar and comforting to me." 

"How on earth is it comforting?!" Emma asked incredulously. 

"I don't know... Reasons." Regina mumbled protectively.

Emma saw the self-consciousness crawl over Regina's body language and she wracked her brain trying to understand how being hungry could ever be nice or comforting. Through all of her childhood, on and off, Emma had been malnourished and hungry. The amount of times she was in trouble for shoplifting and stealing food... She hated hunger for all of the disempowerment it represented for her. 

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be abrasive." Emma started. "I just... You know I wasn't fed well as a kid... I don't understand how hunger could ever feel nice." 

"It's okay." Regina said quietly. "I don't really know what I'm saying... I'm just tired." 

Emma opened her mouth to encourage Regina to share when she saw the brunette sigh and look down at her chest wounds, touching them gingerly. 

Emma's heart melted as she studied Regina's battered features. She really was beautiful. Even with the bloodshot eyes, and the heavy darkness bellow them. Regardless of the cut on her cheek and bruising underneath her chin and around her neck... She still took Emma's breath away. 

"I think we are going to be okay in here, you know?" Emma said with a small smile. 

"Oh really?" Regina snorted, looking up with surprise and raising an eyebrow as she looked pointedly down at her own chest then at Emma's thigh and shoulder, alluding to them both clearly not being okay. 

"Yeah." Emma said with an optimistic nod before looking Regina in the eyes with a goofy smile. "As long as we communicate after emotional shit like we've been doing, we're always gonna be okay. Because we have each other." 

Regina felt her heart flutter at the adorable blonde and she wanted nothing more in that moment than to push off the wall and kiss Emma's dorky smile. So the mayor settled for throwing an equally fervent smile back at the sheriff.

"You never fail to see the good in anything do you?" She said reverently through her smile. 

Emma beamed honestly at the brunette before her features changed and she devilishly raised an eyebrow.

"Uhm... Saviour." She said audaciously before chuckling. 

Regina let out a bark of mirth and laughed with the capricious blonde.

Their laughter died in the hollowness of their cement cell and both women reflected on their absence of it in this hell. 

Regina shivered in the chill and drew her legs up to her, wrapping her arms around herself. Her legs freezing in her ripped sheer stockings and her midsection cold and exposed from her ripped blouse, the rest of the material too thin against the low temperature to offer much warmth. She was grateful though, that it was long sleeved and she found herself thinking absently that at least her high-waisted skirt was double lined. 

"Here..." Emma said, having seen Regina shiver. Leaning away from the wall and shrugging her jacket off, she held it out. 

"No Emma, then you'd be cold." 

Emma looked down at her singlet, jeans and boots. 

"I'd still be wearing more than you..." 

"Thank you for the offer, really." Regina said in a diplomatic tone. "But it'd be silly for me to accept it when you're already cold yourself." 

Emma blinked at the mayoral brunette. 

"Man, Regina. You can be stubborn..." She admitted. "Well how about this?" 

Shuffling into to the corner, she opened her arm with a raised eyebrow. 

Regina's lips quirked at Emma's own stubbornness and she sighed in stalemate, shuffling into the corner too and tucking under Emma's arm. 

"Everyone wins." Emma said, smiling smugly as she draped her jacket over both of them. 

"Don't make me change my mind Sheriff." Regina sassed with a hidden smirk as she settled her head on Emma's good shoulder. 

"Awww, like old times." 

"Indeed..." 

Both women smiled at their familiar tit-for-tat and allowed their bodies to relax into the warm cuddle, nothing to do for now but rest and wait. 

"I wonder what's to come..." Regina voiced sleepily. 

"Who knows." Emma said, anxiety tightening around her chest at the thought. "Whatever it is, we'll face it together." She stated strongly, hugging the brunette tighter.

"Such a Saviour..." Regina mumbled, on the edge of unconsciousness. 

Emma smiled, feeling Regina fall asleep against her. 

"Always..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd love to hear your thoughts.


End file.
